Green Cloaks
by CrimsonSonja
Summary: It had been so calm at sea. A foolish one would think it good, but anyone that was experienced knew better, that a calm sea was only a foreboding of something terrible. Will was experienced. But even he didn't see just how horrible this storm would make his life. Now on a new land, he discovers a nightmare no human should be able to live through. How will he fare in this new land?
1. Chapter 1

Chap. 1: The Storm

Will was uneasy.

The sea was calm, and to the untrained sailor, this might seem like a good thing. But Will was not untrained. In his 13 years of serves to the Ranger Courps, he'd traveled the rough seas at least 100 times. And he'd come to learn that rough seas were far better than what was to come after calm seas.

And he wasn't the only ne uneasy. Like any Skandian worth their salt, they knew this calm to be a foreboding.

Unfortunately, they couldn't do much about it.

For the last day and a half, they'd been trying to avoid a nasty looking storm off to the east, causing them to go off course of their original destination. Now, at nearly noon, they were surrounded by nothing but calm waters, with not even whisper of wind.

The men were also in a sorry state. Exhausted from all of the heat, little fresh water left, and just from having worked hard on avoiding the storm, they know had no strength to know which way to go. Going back would lead right into the storm, while going forward or to either other way could end up putting them farther out.

The captain, Zach, had decided that they should preserve whatever energy they had left, and hoped to replenish some of it even, by letting them just sit. It was undeniable now that that storm would catch them. Their only hope was that they would have enough energy to keep them alive, while also hoping that the storm might lead them inland.

"Shouldn't have tried avoiding the damn thing…"

Will looked over his shoulder to see that Captain Zach was approaching. Joining the Ranger, the captain leaned against the bulwark of the ship.

"Should have just taken it; must be a lot worse now than it had been." Zach said.

Zach was rather young for a Captain, but well respected for his fighting abilities and his sense of camaraderie. This was what got him the position of captain, even though he wasn't the best at it. Sure, he was better than most anyone that was just a simple fisherman, but he still didn't have the skill the other Skandians had.

Will frowned, trying to think of a way to cheer the man up, but doing so would make him lie, saying he'd made a right call on trying to avoid the storm. Really, even Will knew that the man should have taken it on at the beginning. He'd opted out of saying anything at the time, though, because Skandians liked to know that they knew their business- even if they didn't.

So instead, he went for encouraging.

Well, it's not the time to regret it. Do that after we get through the storm." Will said firmly, and a tad gruffly, unknowingly impersonating his old Mentor, Halt. The words sounded harsh, but to a Skandian, they were like a kindness they didn't feel they deserved.

Straightening, Zach smirked and nodded. "Right, well, better go check on your animals. Wouldn't be good for them to be loose, in the off chance that this gets a bit too rocky."

With that, he walked away, still looking slightly shaken due to what would happen, but with a bit more confidence.

Will smiled. He didn't really know all that much about the captain- or the crew for that matter. That didn't mean he hadn't made quick friends with all of them though. But really, the only ones he truly knew on the ship was his own two friends, Tug, his Ranger Horse, and Banner, his dog.

He'd gotten Banner two years ago, from one of his old friends, a giant of a man, who had taken a great liking to his dog at the time- as she did likewise to the man. Shadow was her name. The two men had made a deal that when, if, Shadow had puppies, Will could have one of them.

Banner was an all-black dog, except for a curved white strip down his right side, which happened to look a bit like banner one might hang in archways and such. So much so did it look like a banner, that Alyss had actually temporarily died the fur there to say "Welcome Back!" when Will had returned from one of his various missions.

Giving the surrounding sea on last worried look, he went to check on his two friends.

It was rather odd to be out on his own really. Sure, he'd always had solo missions, but normally, they were within Araluen. He normally had someone with him for overseas missions.

But this time, there was no one that could join him. Halt had retired, and was getting too old for some things, and really, he just didn't like sailing. Alyss was needed at the castle. Gilan had actually gotten himself into a rather rough spot, having to deal with the consequences of engaging with a woman, and so the planning for the wedding, and his rather tough fiancé- who just happened to be one of Will's old ward mates, Jessie. So he was kept from doing anything more than his main Ranger duties. Horace too was busy, as he was not training the knights of the castle.

And really? The mission wasn't something that required more than one Ranger. Just a simple job of checking on how the Skandians were handling in the treaty.

Sighing, Will opened the gate that held Tug and Banner. He smiled when he saw them though. Banner barked in greeting, and Tug gave a cheerful snort. Despite this, they too looked worried. They were probably just glad they had the comfort of their master. But even they knew that Will could only do so much.

Will smirked, trying to reassure them that it would be alright. Walking over, he made sure to tie them down properly before plopping down and leaning back against the warm barrel belly of tug, yawning as he did so. Banner crept closer and rested his head on Will's lap.

After a few last thoughts or worry, and then the reassuring knowledge that the Skandians would wake him when the storm came, he fell asleep.

Will smiled. The warmth of the sun was pleasantly burning on his face. The sound of waves rolling and crashing with each other reached his hears. He could smell the sweet salty sent of the sea, and to add to the pleasant feeling, there was a soft kiss of wind sweeping gently around him.

But there was something odd.

With that kiss of wind, there was a distinctly unpleasant smell. A smell he was not new to, and made his skin crawl.

Dread building in his gut, he slowly opened his eyes to what was around him.

He immeadeutly looked away, trying to hold back his bile. The ship was a wreck. The Skandians at the rows were in a terrible state of having their arms broken from the force of waves too strong for them. Some, the ones that had the end of the rows, had been impaled by them. Taking a deep breath, Will looked back, trying to find survivors. Zack was nowhere to be seen, and Will could only guess that his rope had snapped and he'd gone overboard- if the broken rope at his position was any indication.

As far as he could see, none had survived.

He heard a whine and spike of dread shot through him as he looked, finding that Banner was pinned under the broken mast.

Running over, Will tried to pull the mast up off the dog, but stopped immeadeutly after, as white hot pain blinded him, and a sharp pain ran through him starting at his right side. Looking down, he found that he had a rather large chunk of wood lodged there, though not horribly deeply. Still, it wasn't allowing for anything that required heavy lifting.

Panicked, he looked around, and saw Tug, thankfully unharmed aide from a few scrapes on his back and side.

"Tug! Help me!" he called, and was surprised to find his voice rather croaky, as if he'd not had anything to drink for a few days. But the Ranger Horse understood and came over, and placed its head on the mast and pushed. Will pushed as much as he could manage. Finally, they managed to push it enough that Will could pull Banner clear.

When Banner was clear, Tug let the mast go, and it rolled back into place.

Will looked Banner over, and what he saw was not pleasant.

It was obvious he had broken rips, at least four. Some of the bones had even come out of the skin. He had lost a lot of blood, as shown by the pool of it where he'd just been. He was too weak to even lift his head, and just barely able to move his eyes, though Will doubted he was able to see all that clearly.

It was obvious this was his faithful friends last moments.

Will's eyes began to prickle with the sting of hot tears. Tug too looked sorrowful as he sniffed at his friend.

After crying there over Banner, who had now died, Will finally got up, as it was getting dark, and he had work to do.

He didn't have time to bury them all, nor did he have the strength for it, though he wished he did. Instead, he found what he could of the whisky and spread it round as much as he could over the ship. He made a few piles for starter fires, and after that was done, set them all on fire.

He got Tug off, as they had crashed next to the shore of some beach. They waited there on the shore, watching as the boat went up in flame. It was the most proper funeral for a Skandian. He'd even made sure that all of them had their weapon in hand.

As for Banner, he'd placed the dogs body on Tug's back when they'd gotten off the ship, and buried him over in the trees at the edge of the beach.

By then, the sky had grown dark. He was just mounting Tug when he heard the sound of great thunder. So great as it that he felt it vibrating in the ground. Blinking he looked up at the sky, but it was too dark now to tell if there were anything storm worthy. Plus, there was no flashing of lightning.

"Strange….." he said, and Tug vibrated with worry. Will looked down at the horse, and patted him on the neck.

"It's okay, boy. Let's just get out of here and find some shelter." He said, and Tug snorted in agreement, and started running.

What Will didn't see was what emerged after they'd left the beach, which was the cause of the "thunder". He also didn't see it as it attacked the burning ship, scooping up the dead Skandians and eating them.

Had he seen it, he might have been more prepared for what was to come.

_**AN: Alrighty! So, this is my first time doing anything with Attack on Titan, and I gotta say, I'm loving this idea so far. I really don't know where exactly its going, but I do have some things in mind.**_

_**I was sorta surprised to find that there was nothing for this, which kinda makes me worry that this won't get that much attention due to no one knowing that there is a Rangers Apprentice crossover for this anime…. Hum, oh well, I like it, and I hope you guys do too. **_

_**Now, I'm going to say this now, I might not update for long periods of time. But never will I abandon a fanfics. I'd have to have died for something like that to happen. It might take me a day to update, it might take me a year. You just can't rush creativity! Plus, I'm in college, and doing this with free time that isn't being spent doing other fun free time stuff that you get to do in college. ^_^**_

_**Now, this doesn't mean I don't want to hear "PLEASE UPDATE SOOON!" because saying that stuff makes me happy that people like it and motivates me to do more. But if I have horrible grammar and spelling, sorry, but for now, that's not really my concern. I'm writing this for fun. I'll try to keep the bad spelling down to a minimum, and if it is there, then it's a typo. Grammar, that'll just have to be fixed every now and then. **_

_**I don't take on batas! No offense to you guys that offer, but I just don't do that. I'd love to be able to, but I can't. I've had too many batas in the past and they either didn't stay consistent with me so that I could have the next chapter up in time, or they would change things in the story. **_

_**So no batas. Again sorry, but it's too much of a hassle. **_

_**So anyway, R&amp;R and tell me what you think! I'll try and have the next chap up soon, but again, no promises.**_

_**Until then, bye!**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chap. 2: A Terrifying Discovery**

Will had been riding with Tug for nearly three hours. The thunder had stopped shortly after he left the beach, and he felt relieved that he might not have to deal with a storm for the night. He'd had enough of storms to last him quite a while.

While he'd been riding, he had been trying to recall all that had happened. Unfortunately, he couldn't recall all that much.

He'd woken up at the shouting of Zack, who was crouched over him, telling him that the storm was right on them and that Will needed to "get lively".

When Will got up, he found that Zack must have already tied him down, and felt a tad stupid that he hadn't done so himself before falling asleep.

He had been about to stand up when something big came flying at him due to the rocking of the ship, and hit him in the head. After that, he didn't remember anything, and had to assume that he'd been knocked out, and didn't wake up the rest of the way.

He wished he knew what happened to Zack.

He didn't know if they captain had died or not, and he felt sorrowful at the thought that if he had died, he hadn't had his weapon in hand, as Will had found it, lodged into the wood of the stern.

He had it with him now actually.

Will didn't know why he'd kept it. He had no idea how to use the thing himself, having never been taught as it wasn't a Ranger's weapon. But for some reason, he thought it better to take it with him, instead of leaving it.

Blinking, he realized that he was hunched over, falling asleep. Shaking his head, he sat up and looked around. It was rather dark, but the crescent moon was casting just enough of a glow that he could make out some shapes. One was looming above them to the right, and he stirred Tug towards it, finding that it was a small forest of huge trees. They would make great shelter.

They rode into the trees and Will was astonished to find how thick the trunks were. Never had he seen so many trees this big. There were a few in Araluen, but not many, and never in this many numbers- if there was any even next to each other.

Looking around, he found a place where the ground was hollow under the roots of the tree and went down to check around it for any unwanted critters. Finding it empty, he led Tug down into it and set about making a place to sleep.

He was hungry, but he didn't yet have the energy to make a fire, and he didn't even have any food to cook- all the food on the boat must have been thrown off in the storm-, and didn't have the energy to hunt for anything either. He'd just have to rest for now and hunt later. And he'd have to rely on vegetables and using snares- assuming he could make them that is-, because the wound in his side simply didn't allow for him to use his bow yet.

He'd managed to clean and wrap it, but hadn't had the time yet to get a better look at it and see about stitching it himself. That'd have to be another thing he'd have to deal with the next day.

For now, he needed sleep. So, lying back against Tug, he fell into a slightly less than fitful, but still greatly needed sleep.

* * *

The next day, Will woke to the vibrating body of Tug. Alerted, he sat up, looking around for signs of danger.

At first, he thought it was still dark out, as there wasn't much light coming in through the hole in the roof of the burrow. But then something caught his eyes that told him that it was daylight outside. He looked at it, wondering why it told him this, and then it clicked in his mind.

They were small flowers. At night, when he'd first gotten in there, they were almost closed, and facing the ground. He hadn't really realized he'd taken that kind of information in, but at the same time, wasn't surprised, as a Ranger was taught to do such things, to file away seemingly unimportant information.

But while they had been like that at night, they were now blooming and facing the entrance of the burrow.

He had observed once that plants follow sunlight. The fact that these plants had had the time to find the light and bloom, even when there was a canopy of leaves that blocked some light, showed just how long daylight had been out.

This brought him to wonder just why there was no light at all coming through the hole. It really was dark. Not quite as dark as last night but still dark enough that he had to really focus on anything to see it clearly.

Looking up at the hole, he found himself looking at something rather odd.

Really, he didn't know what he was looking at, though somehow it looked familiar. He knew it hadn't been there the night before- it was completely blocking the hole, after all.

He studied it, trying to think of what it could be. It was glassy, maybe even kinda wet. There were two circles, one big gray one that was so big that the hole didn't even allow all of it to be shown. Then there was a black center to it, which was the second circle.

The more Will looked at it, the more he felt he should know what it was, but something in his mind just didn't want to make a connection to what it could be. Finally though, as he was starting to think he knew what it might be, suddenly something slid over it. On both sides of the circles, something fleshy colored slid over the glassy surface, and closed, and immediately opened up again.

In that moment, Will knew what he was looking at.

Fear clutched at his heart, as he suddenly realized why Tug had been alerting him to danger.

He didn't know just how big the thing really was, but to have an eye that big, it meant the thing had to be pretty big itself, right? What was even scarier was that it didn't look like any animal eye. It looked like a human eye. Huge and rather dull looking, but a human eye nonetheless.

Stifling a scream, as he wasn't sure how the thing would react, he got up and stared to move to the very back of the burrow. He almost tripped with shock when the eye followed him. He had no idea that an eye moving could make that much sound, but it apparently did, and it was a rather sickening sound at that.

But he really didn't get a chance to actually settle at the back of the burrow, as suddenly, the eye pulled back a bit and was suddenly coming forward.

The ground shook, as the things head slammed into the tree and ground. It did it again, and again, and Will could only sit there, watching in terror as it kept trying to get to him. He heard the sound of something clacking, loudly, and realized that it sounded like the amplified sound of teeth coming together at great force.

Finally, he managed to push himself up and retreat to the very back of the burrow, but it wasn't much better.

The thing kept slamming into the tree. It looked as if it didn't even care how much it was hurting itself either, as Will could see bits of blood flying into the burrow, only to evaporate into a thick steam.

And the steam! It was filling the burrow, making it harder to see anything and was so thick and hot, it made breathing hard.

Tug had managed to find Will, and was crouching next to him now, and couldn't seem to stop vibrating.

It continued like this for quite a while, and every once in a while, the burrow filled with light, as the thing pulled away, but the light slowly faded, as the sun was going down.

So too did the speed at which the beast was slamming its head in to the tree, until finally, it stopped.

By then, it was completely dark, and even more so in the burrow than the night before, as the thing was completely blocking the entrance and any light the moon could caste.

After a while of just sitting there, listening to the heavy breathing of the beast, Will finally managed summon up the courage to move, and start feeling around for his flint and steel. Having found them, he then looked for his tinder and kindling. He found some sticks, and placed him in a small pile. Placing the tinder in a small pile, he lit it, and it gave enough of a glow for him to place the kindling around it. Once that too had caught fire, he added the sticks he'd found and soon had a small fire going.

The whole time, he'd not allowed himself to look up at the hole, convincing himself the fire wasn't strong enough to see anything more than three feet away, but now, as it filled the whole burrow, he had no choice.

Looking up, he was once again struck with fear at the size of the thing, though relief was there too as it was closed, though there was still a sliver of the eye visible.

Taking a deep breath, he decided that he needed to test something. What? To see just how asleep it was.

Standing, a bit shaky, he slowly walked forward. In the middle of the burrow now, he found the thing was not reacting at all to his being near. Looking around at the ground, he found a large rock and picked it up. Hefting it in his hand, he decided it would do.

He threw it at the thing, hitting just above the center.

He waited for a reaction.

Nothing happened.

Sighing in relief, he walked forward some more, growing more wary, and slower the closer he got. Finally, his face was only a foot away from it, and realized that the thing emitted a lot of body heat. He found himself studying the large eyelashes, which were about as thick as his arm at their base. Reaching out, he touched one and found it warm, and it felt like tree bark. He briefly wondered how good it would burn.

Shaking his head, he focused again. Now it was time for the more terrifying test. He reached out to touch its eyelid.

Almost immediately, his hand flung back, a hiss of pain escaping his lips.

It was hot! Boiling even!

Clutching his hand, he looked at it and was relieved to find that it wasn't burned like it felt. After all, it felt like he'd stuck his hand into a pot of boiling water. With the knowledge that his hand was fine, he looked back at the thing to find that it hadn't reacted at all to his touch.

It was truly sleeping.

Sighing, he found himself greatly relieved that it was. After all, now he didn't have to worry about it trying to attack him for a good few hours, and he could think properly.

Walking back over to Tug, who had also calmed down considerably, but was still spooked, he sat down.

He was sitting there for a while when his stomach suddenly gave a rather loud grumble. He'd been so focused on his terror, his hunger was the last thing on his mind. Now that he knew he was relatively safe, it made itself known.

He frowned, realizing now what a predicament he was in. He couldn't get out, because the thing was blocking the entrance. The only thing that he could see that looked relatively pleasant to eat was the flowers, and they'd provide little nutrients, forget the fact that there weren't many.

Then he saw something that made him grown, knowing it was really the only thing there was.

Reaching forward, he picked the small beetle up. Studying it as it squirmed in his grip all he could think of was that his life right now was worse than it ever had been- and he'd gone through a lot for one so young.

Shutting his eyes, he threw it back, biting down on it before he could feel it squirming in his mouth. He chewed on it quickly, completely destroying it, so he couldn't tell what was wing, what were legs, and what was shell- really, just to make it seem like he wasn't eating a bug.

Finally he swallowed it. It tasted horrible, really, but he knew that it was all he had at the moment. It also made him hungrier.

Looking around, he found more crawling around in the burrow. Going to Tug he found a pot and its lid and set about finding all of the things, and even ended up finding some worms, which in all honestly made him want to throw up at the prospect of eating them, but he pushed the thought aside, knowing that he would need it.

Finally, he had the pot full of about ten beetles, and three worms, and a few crickets. All of them were squirming around inside the pot, and he could hear the DING! as the crickets bodies hit the sides and roof of the pot.

Placing it over the fire, he cooked them. Looking around in his pack, he found a small bottle of cooking wine, and put just a bit in to the pot, in hopes that it might lessen the horrible taste.

The whole time, his eyes were stinging due to the amount of smoke that was being trapped inside the burrow. Luckily, the beast wasn't completely blocking the entrance, as there was at least a foot a space open that allowed the smoke to escape through. But still, it wasn't enough to lessen Will's pain.

Finally though, he bugs were all cooked, and he took the pot off the fire, setting it to the side, so it could cool down before he started eating.

An hour later, the bugs where all eaten, and all Will could think was that they were utterly disgusting. The cooking wine didn't even help all that much. But his stomach was no longer complaining.

He put out the fire, and sat back, leaning onto Tug, and found that while he wasn't entirely sleepy, his eyes no longer wanted to be open, as the smoke had irritated them too much. So, he closed them and just listened to the sounds around him. After a while, he started to realize something odd about the beasts breathing. Was it just him, or was there an echo…?

But before he could fully concentrate on the thought, he fell asleep.

* * *

_**AN: Okay, so second chapter down, and so far, not one of my more looked at fics. I'm really not all that surprised though, I guess. But please just stick with me! I promise it'll get good. :P I guess I really should have waited to post the story at all. Normally, I have at least two chapters done before I even think of posting. **_

_**Anyway, R&amp;R and tell me what you think of this chapter. **_

_**For now, I need to get to bed. Next chap. tomorrow, hopefully.**_


	3. Chap 3: The Great Escape

**Chap. 3: The Great Escape**

Will woke to the sudden light filling the burrow.

As soon as his eyes opened, he saw that the beast was just waking up, moving away from the hole, only to smash back into the tree's outer roots, once again trying to get to Will.

He also realized with some irritation at himself, that Tug was vibrating with an alert, meant to wake him up, and it obviously hadn't. Perhaps he was more tired than he had thought the night before.

In any case, Will was now faced with the problem of how he was to get out of the burrow. He briefly pondered slipping out while the beast was pulling away, but immediately discarded the idea. Assuming the beast wouldn't just dart for him the second his head was out of the burrow, there was still the speed with which the beast was going. He'd have no hope of slipping out.

And there was still Tug to get out too.

He could dig his way out from the back of the burrow. The only problem he saw with that is that it could take a long time, and he'd like to be out of the place by at least the next day.

But as things stood, he saw no other option.

He decided to wait till the beast was asleep again before he actually started to dig into the wall of the burrow, because he wasn't sure of the intelligence level the beast had. He doubted it was very high, considering what it was doing to try to get to him, but he'd rather not test it.

While he waited for night to fall, and with it, the beast to slumber, Will tried to distract himself by petting Tug, trying to calm the Ranger horse, as well as himself.

It felt like ages has passed when night finally fell, and as soon as it did, the beast was once again fast asleep, and Will was at work on his escape.

All sense of time was lost to him, having been trapped in the darkness with no way to look at the sky, but his internal clock told him that he'd been working on digging for at least four hours.

His muscles were cramped and he felt a blister forming on his right hand, but he had made some rather nice progress- roughly six feet.

When he ran into rocks that were too big and blocking his path, he had to dig them out and toss it into the burrow. Luckly, the soil was loose and there weren't that many rocks, so he used a stick or his hands to do the main digging. For roots though, he used his sax knife, but instead of throwing them away, he put them in his pack- he'd heard a while back that you could make some fairly good meals out of tree roots.

More hours passed and he soon became too tired to continue. He set his things down and leaned against the wall of the small tunnel, now eight feet long.

After a few minutes of sitting there, catching his breath, he heard a rumble of hunger, and looked up to see Tug looking at him with sorry eyes.

"It's okay, I understand. Here..."

Will pushed himself up and walked over to the bag he had stored the roots in. Taking his water skin, he poured some onto a cloth and washed off three roots, two big ones and one the size of his thumb. Once they were cleaned of dirt, he gave the two big ones to Tug and the horse greatly accepted. Looking at his own root, he shrugged. It couldn't be worse than the bugs.

It was rather like a chewy carrot in texture, and slightly bitter, but overall, it was a definite improvement from the bugs. Perhaps letting them dry longer might help with the unpleasant chewiness of it, but then again, the chewiness was because of the water still in them, and if he was going to be using his water to wash them, it was probably best this way- at least until he found a stream somewhere.

Finding that he was still hungry, he picked out another root.

After finishing it, he realized how worn out he was. His muscles felt like one big bruise, and he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open. Looking down into the tunnel he'd made, he contemplated what he should do- if he should shake of the drowsiness and continue working or if he should just go to sleep.

In the end, sleep won out and he leaned against Tug and drifted off.

* * *

The next day, Will actually woke up to Tug's warning- he'd be damned he'd failed in that twice in a row.

Yawning he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and watched with a surprising muteness as the creature woke and began it's attempts to get him once again.

Somehow, he just didn't have it in him to fear it now.

Well, "not fear" it wasn't quite right, but he just didn't seem worried. Not really. He knew sooner of later, the thing might actually be able to make it, but by then, Will would have already been gone- hopefully anyway.

Sitting up, he grabbed the bag of roots and plucked some out for Tug and himself. Washing them off, he gave Tug two thick ones, and himself three small ones. While he was sitting and eating, he found himself studying the creature as much as he could with so little area of sight, and the constant shift in the lighting.

It appeared that it had a slightly human face, if a bit exaggerated. It's eyes were probably it's creepiest feature, as they almost seemed dead. It also had a rather odd smell. It wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't like it stank either. Sort of a bitter sweet smell mixed with the smell of iron- which was from all the blood, even if it evaporated.

He pondered why the blood evaporated so quickly. It made sense that it would, he supposed. Perhaps the large body generated more heat, and caused the blood to basically be at a constant state of boiling. So hot was it that when not contained in the heated body, the blood just evaporated. That was as best as he could figure anyway.

He also wondered just how big the creature really was. Taking into account the size of its eye, as well as what he'd managed to see of it's face, he imagined it be quite large. He also took into account it's amazing healing abilities, as well as it's obvious resistance to pain, and wondered if such a creature could ever be killed, because a time may come when he would need to take action.

Just as he was starting to really wonder how he could even get out of this alive, there was a sudden source of light that was not coming from the burrow's entrance, but from the tunnel.

Blinking, he turned to look down into the tunnel, only to stare in shock at what he saw.

He'd been so close to digging into what appeared to be another burrow, which clearly had an opening to it. With all of the shaking, the remaining bit of wall must have crumbled away.

He almost ran for it then and there, but refrained.

The tunnel wasn't wide enough to fit Tug, and there was still the creature's intelligence he didn't want to test. Better to wait until night, when the beast was fast asleep before he made his escape. But he had to first make the tunnel wider for Tug.

But even knowing he'd have to wait out the rest of the day, he was still filled with hope. He might just make it out of this alive.

* * *

Will passed the day away by pulling out what paper he had left from the ship wreak and started making notes, observations, anything that even remotely had to do with the beast.

Finally, the creature started to slow down and stop. As soon as it had, Will packed away his notes and went to work on the tunnel, widening it enough for Tug to fit though. He'd have Tug go bear back, and carry all the equipment through himself.

The more time passed, the more Will's excitment grew. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Will finally felt as though he were free.

He quickly packed everything up and motioned for Tug to go through the tunnel.

Once everything was in the other burrow, he started to saddle Tug and put all the luggage on the back of the saddle.

"Alright Tug, this is it. Go on and climb out. I'm right behind you." Will said, motioning toward the hole that lead out.

As Tug was manuvering his way up the slightly raised ground, Will noticed something else in the second burrow. Looking harder- as there wasn't much light to go by- he realized it was some animal.

Walking up to it, he realized what it was and gasped.

It was a wolf cub. Looking around, he realized that the burrow was actually rather recently vacated. Most likely, this cub's pack lived in here but when the creature started ramming into the tree to get at Will, it must have scared them off. The cub must have been left behind.

Will crouched down to study it and by it's looks, it was rather young, still inexperienced. If left on it's own, it'd surely die. It was rather weak too, probably already dying of starvation.

He reached his hand out to pick it up. It had known of his presence and his studying of it, and had acted with a bit of curiosity and didn't do anything, but now that Will was going to touch it, it sprang to action- surprisingly energetic, given it's weak state.

"Now, now..." Will's hand shot out and lightly whacked it on the head and it gave a small squeak, but went back to glaring, although the growling had stopped and Will could feel its grudged submission. Reaching forward again, Will picked it up by the scruff and held it up to his face.

"You're a feisty little one aren't you?" the only reply was glaring, which only made Will smirk. "Well, be a shame to leave you to the crows."

Standing, Will put the wolf cub in his arms more securely and walked out of the burrow, where Tug was waiting rather impatiently. When the Ranger's Horse caught sight of the cub in Will's arms, he took on a skeptical look.

"Another stray?" the look seemed to say.

"Oh, you hush. You know you love having a canine companion." Will said, which also brought to mind his dog who had died in the ship wreck. A sad look crossed his face, but he pushed the feeling away. He was loosing moon light, and had to secure a place for the three of them.

He was about to find a place to put the cub when he took in his surroundings.

Looking up, he was horrified all over again.

There were so many of them surrounding the tree he'd been under, at least ten of them. He recalled having noticed an echo in the breathing of the sleeping beast. This must have been why.

And now that he was outside, he saw what they truly looked like. They were like horribly disfigured, giant humans. It nearly paralyzed him with fear, but then Tug nudged him- scared as well, no doubt- it snapped him out of it.

Will nodded and hopped on Tug. He didn't bother making a place for the cub to rest, because he planned on Tug bolting out of there, and the cub would surely fall off. Better to just hold it.

As soon as he was saddled and adjusted, he cracked the rains and Tug took off, leaving the horrible creatures behind.

For now at least.

* * *

_**A.N.: Hey guys! **_

_**So I'm sorry it took me so long to update on this, but to be honest, I wasn't sure if I should bother, as it's not looking very popular. Wasn't getting any reviews or anything, so I was about ready to give up on it, but then, thanks to Araina, I started up again! This is really a good story, in my opinion, and I really didn't want to give up on it. Hopefully it'll pick up soon. **_

_**Also I'm sorry if this chapter drug on a bit.**_

_**R&amp;R and tell me what you think. Till next time, bye!**_


	4. Chap 4: Renewed Hope

**Chap. 4: Renewed Hope**

Will sighed as he leaned back into the tree he was perched in, quite a few meter's high.

He'd been in this land for nearly half a year, and the whole time he was having to watch out for the giant beasts. He had gained a lot of knowledge about them, as well as the land itself.

For example, the beasts didn't bother any other animals, only ever focusing on Will. With that discovery, Will's plight became much easier when it came to finding places to rest during the day.

Tug and Rain- the wolf cub he'd found, which was female, and about as big as a shepherd and still growing- stayed down on the ground, at least thirty feet from the tree he'd be in. If he could, he'd find them a burrow to stay in, but so long as they weren't at his tree it was fine. This was so that in the chance that the beasts found him, the two would be safe from being stomped on, or being trapped in the burrow at night when the beasts feel asleep.

Will was the only one at real risk, so he climbed so high into the tree it was almost impossible for them to get to him. If one looked close to getting him, he'd climb higher into the tree.

Come night time, he'd quickly jump down through the branches until he reached the point where there were no branches. He then tied a rope around a branch and propelled down the rest of the way. Once he reached the bottom, he'd give the rope a few shakes and the knot would come loose and untie.

Tug and Rain would be waiting for him as soon as thy knew the beasts were asleep, so he'd have no problem of having to go search for their tree. Then, they would ride out of the forest and find the next one they could.

It was as good a system as he could work out. The only problem was that sometimes the forests didn't show up before day break. It scared Will to no end, but so far nothing had happened when that happened. At most, he saw one of the beasts walking around on the plain he was on, but it had never caught sight or sent of him.

The beasts were also different in many ways, at least in shape. Some where short, if 5 meters tall could even be called such a thing, but then others were terrifyingly tall, as if the 5 meters weren't bad enough.

They were fat or skinny, sometimes even both, with a large stomach but limbs so scrawny it almost seemed impossible that they could support themselves.

Some had faces that were grotesque, and others had faces that were almost too human. Will couldn't decide which was scarier.

The most common thing that he'd seen of them, and probably the only consistency in their looks, was that they all appeared to be male, even though they didn't have the genitalia for it.

And then there was their behavior. He thought they were all rather crazy, and would go to extreme ends just to get at him, but he soon came to the realization that some were far worse. It'd only happened once, but one clearly had a different approach to him. It had been nearing dusk when it happened. It still clearly wanted to get at him, but instead of trying to reach up the length of the tree, like the others had been doing at the time, it had come out of nowhere, bashing the others to the side and ramming into the tree with so much force, the tree leaned to the side, and its own shoulder- and arm with it- went slack, as it had obviously shattered all of the bones there. Despite this, it continued to ram the same shoulder into the tree with a crazed gleam in it's eye.

Despite all of the other times the beasts where after him, he'd always been moderately safe. That night was the first that he'd actually come close to his death. The only thing that saved him was the dark that finally came.

After that, he'd seen a few other crazed ones, but was lucky enough to have been at long distance away.

On a lighter note, he had also found that there used to be other people that lived out in these lands, as he came across some deserted farms, mansions and even a few villages. It was in one house that he found a nearly empty business lager and had taken to record notes and such in it.

Normally, he'd have put in a few sentences at the end of his nocturnal day, recording his personal thoughts and such, but had foregone it this time, as he needed rest. It'd been a long nights ride, and climbing the trees wasn't exactly easy- honestly, climbing up the tower at Redmont had been easier. He still had a bit of time before the sun really broke, and he used it to catch some sleep.

* * *

Will was woken by the sound of something, but he wasn't sure what exactly.

Looking around, he frowned in confusion. Something seemed off. It was quiet, which wasn't normal, as almost every day, his tree was surrounded, and even when it wasn't, the beasts where still roaming near by, not yet aware of his presence.

Looking down, he stared in shock. Just has he'd thought, there wasn't a single beast at his tree, but that wasn't what shocked him. It was the fact that there was a dead beast about twenty feet from his tree.

As he watched, the corps of the beast seemed to evaporate, until it was nothing but bones, and even they started to disintegrate.

It was the first time he'd seen one dead. Quickly, he whipped out his journal to take notes on it.

Just as he finished it he saw something out of the corner of his eye. There was a trail of kicked up dirt, leading off to the west. Looking closer, he realized it must be a horse, although he knew right away that it couldn't be Tug, as this horse was clearly dark in color, didn't run nearly as fast as Tug, and also had a rider.

It had a rider! Another human being!

And as Will watched, he saw two more people emerge on horses from either side of the first one. They were all heading in the same direction.

Will was filled with new hope once again. If there was still a living civilization here, he might just survive in this land.

But he couldn't go after them now. He had to wait till night.

He had no idea why these people were out during the day, but chances were they knew about the beasts and were prepared. He was not prepared. So going out at night was the best option for him, as it always was.

He was too wound up to rest now, so he just sat back and pondered on how these people managed to survive.

Finally, the sun was down and the moon and stars were out. Will was down the tree in one hour, and smiled when he saw Tug and Rain. Tug looked at him oddly, as if saying, "Why so happy all of a sudden?" while Rain just barked and licked his hand.

"Great news. I saw some people today, riding west. We might just have a chance!" Will exclaimed. Tug neighed with joy and Rain just hopped up and licked Will's face.

"Alright, alright. We can celebrate when we've found them. For now, lets get going."

* * *

Hours latter, Will found more recent tracks and followed them to some ruins. Riding up to them, he found that the place was recently lived in, but had obviously been vacated. Disappointment came over him, but not for long. It was still something big, proof that there really were other humans.

Walking around, Will found the horse stable and put Tug there so he could rest. He also gave him some hay and was glad to find that there was still water in the trough. Tug taken care of, Will wondered off to explore the ruins.

Well, calling them ruins wasn't quite right. There was a hole in one side of the old mansion, but aside from that, the place was in good shape. Looking around inside, Will found where the people had eaten, and allowed Rain to take any of the left over meat scraps. Walking into a smaller room connected to the dinning room, he found a small table with candle wax plastered on it. But what caught his interest most of all was the large parchment on the table. Not daring to hope too much, he picked it up and stared wide eyed at it.

It was a map of the land. Or, some of it anyway. He saw the place that was marked in black as where he was currently and a line detailing a rout to another place, much bigger than the one he was in.

Resisting the urge to jump and scream with joy, Will folded the map up and left the room. He continued looking all over the house to see if he could find anything else that could be useful.

He didn't find anything more aside from a very odd metal contraption that had "3-D.M.G." stamped into it. What ever it was, it was clearly not a toy, as inside the two metal boxes, there were very odd blades.

He spent some time studying the device, and found that there was a piece missing from one side that was on the other. It was a sort of cylinder that domed on both ends. Frowning, he realized he'd seen a whole bunch of these in a box in a few rooms down.

Taking the odd contraption with him down the hall to that room, he found the box and pulled out another one and spent a bit of time figuring out how to clamp it in. Once he had it in, he took the small plug that was similar to the other one, and plugged it in. It gave a hissing sound, which honestly took him by surprise, but once it was in, it stopped.

He still had no idea what the thing was suppose to be, but he decided he'd keep it. He also took some more of the odd cylinders and packed them away as well, in the off chance that they could be handy.

Finally done with exploring the place, he found a room to rest in for the day.

Will woke to the sound of blissful quiet night. He realized he'd slept through the whole day, and was honestly surprised he'd survived. He wondered if it was because there was a larger group of humans now that was taking the attention off of him. While he did worry for the other people's lives, he couldn't deny that he was a bit grateful that they had taken the attention away.

Sitting up in the bed, he scratched Rain behind the ears as she looked up at him.

"Well, I'd say it's about time we moved out. Here's hoping we can make it to those people's camp before day break, eh girl?"

A bark and wagging tail was her response.

Standing, Will stretched before donning his cloak and all other equipment. He found himself very refreshed, as that was the first night he'd sleep in an actual bed since coming to this land. Ranger's may be trained to deal with being uncomfortable, but even then, a good nights rest in a bed was always a god send.

* * *

After making sure he had everything packed and ready to go he was off. He worried briefly if he was being ridiculous in bringing the odd contraptions, but seeing as they still fit well onto Tugs back saddle and didn't seem to hinder him, he pushed his worries aside. If need be, he'd ditch them, but something told him they'd come in handy.

It was quite a few hours before Will saw any sign of recent life. The sun was actually starting to rise, the sky a dark aqua marine color. He'd been loosing hope that he'd find them before it actual broke over the horizon, but than something caught his eye that filled him was more hope than he'd had in a long time.

Three flickers of flame, one big and two small. A bonfire and some torches, most likely.

The second he saw them, he urged Tug into a gallop, Rain falling in beside his strides easily. The closer he got, the safer he felt.

After about twenty minutes of Tug's steady gallop, the sun had come out more, not out yet, but almost. Will was able to see what this camp looked like. It was another mansion, although it was much smaller and appeared to be on a farm. There were towers, some with a desecrated windmills, and some being just look out posts.

He stopped at one of the out posts, which was the furthest from the Mansion. Walking inside, he found a spiral staircase inside, leading up to the top, although about halfway up, the stairs had rotted and crumbled away, leaving a sizable gap in the steps. The walls were cobble stone, so Will found the problem minimal.

He had stopped here to actually get a look at these people, and see if they could be just as much of a potential threat as the beasts. See if he could trust them. He may have been happy to see them, but he didn't want to regret blindly running into their camp and finding them to be a bunch of bandits.

He was, after all, a Ranger.

Will was finding these people to be interesting if nothing else. He still didn't know quite yet if he could trust them not to cut him down with their odd swords the second they saw him, but they definitely didn't appear to be bandits. Honestly, the way they carried themselves, they looked more military.

But what was most odd was their dress.

Knights generally wore metal armor, or sometimes thick, molded, leather armor. These men did neither. They dressed in regular, light fabric shirts, with tight fitting canvas breeches. Their boots were leather and reached all the way up to the knees, and there appeared to be a knee guard attached to the top front of the boot. Some had brown, canvas coats, but not many as it was quite hot out. They also wore green cloaks, that only covered their backs, but didn't reach further than that. On the cloaks backs was some sort of crest, although they were too far away for Will to see what they depicted.

What had Will's attention the most however was the contraptions they seemed to have on them almost constantly. They were the same as the one he had, and it appeared that it was meant to be belted on the hips. But aside from seeing where exactly the contraption was to be placed, he had no idea how to use it, as none of them did- although one had pulled out one of the blades, with some odd handle that vaguely reminded him of a crossbow's handle and trigger, but he'd not seen anything like that back at the mansion, and so didn't have one himself. The handle appeared to be connected to something else on the belt, but, again, they never used it, so Will had no idea what it was for.

Still, he had gained a good amount of info, as he'd recorded as much in his journal.

As far as he could tell, assuming these people would allow him in, his biggest problem would be their language. He'd heard their raised voices every now and then, and found that, while it appeared their language wasn't too different from his own, they had a very different accent, so some things had to be deciphered.

After watching them for quite some time, he realized that they weren't going to be going anywhere that day, and decided that he'd be safe to sleep up in the look out. Tug and Rain were down at the bottom and inside, and knew to keep quiet if someone were approaching.

Pulling his cloak around him, he sat cross-legged against the wall and allowed himself to drift off into sleep.

* * *

_**AN: So, I didn't say this last chapter, but I feel terrible. I had that chapter, and half of this one done and just sitting there. T.T I'd completely forgotten to post it, I'm so sorry!**_

_**Huh...**_

_**Anyway I really am sorry it's taken me so long to update. Honestly, I really can't imagine giving up on the story, but it's still not looking very popular. **_

_**So here's the deal. **_

_**I know that it could probably use a bit more work, some fillers here and there, maybe a bit less rushed in some areas, and a bit more in others. But I've got a lot of fics that need updating, and most of them are way more popular, so I'll probably end up focusing on them more. If this story starts to get more popular though, I'll more than likely start working on it more.**_

_**I know why it's not the most popular, though. As Araina said, "I really didn't think there were any other aot rangers apprentice nerds out there." Well, I think there are plenty of aot nerds, and plenty of rangers apprentice nerds- though probably less than the aot- but not many are probably nerds for both. The some of the aot nerds probably don't even know of RA. **_

_**But that's okay. I'm not giving up on this story. I'll just take a long time to update.**_

_**It'll be like a presnt to all my fic's fans, for your Un-birthday! :D**_

_**Well, at this point I'm just rambling now, so I'll let you go ahead and read the next chapter, or sulk because there's not another one yet. **_

_**R&amp;R, and tell me what you think! Bye!**_


	5. Chap 5: Unbelievable

**Chap. 5: Unbelievable**

Will woke to the slight sound of drizzling rain and thunder.

Only, he knew that the "thunder" wasn't thunder at all.

After all, he'd been living in this land for nearly half a year and knew the sound of those giants even if they were a days ride away.

But these were much closer. Probably about 20 miles. Too close. Standing and looking out the window facing the sound, his heart climbed into his throat. The rain and heavy air had been muffling the sound some what. There were 3 of them, and were about 10 miles too close. And closing the gap fast.

Panicked, he looking out the other window that looked toward the encampment.

They were either asleep or taking shelter from the rain, because he didn't see anyone immediately. On closer inspection though, he did see some in the other towers, although, it was much less that he saw a person, more that he saw the light of a flame glowing in the other tower windows. But there seemed to be no alarm.

Could it be they didn't hear them? What was the point in establishing a watch if there was no watching going on? Looking back to the other window, the giants were now 6 miles out.

There was only one thing he could do, and hope that it saved both them and him.

"GIANTS!" he bellowed in his strongest voice, something that he'd had to adapt while being with the Skandians. He already had a pretty strong and loud voice, but when with Skandians in a roaring sea, he needed to be even louder than that.

He wasn't going to take the chance that they didn't hear him, so he shouted it again, "GIANTS!" he shouted it until he finally saw activity. At first there was confusion, until they caught sight of the giants and were immediately in action, forming groups, and some using the strange equipment to scale the towers.

It was just in time too, as the first giant reached them just as the last two people got into position.

Will watched, panic still very much present, but also awe, as he watched three of the tower soldiers fly through the air, right at the beasts. Two cut at it's back ankle, severing the nerves there and causing it to crash to the ground. While someone on the ground quickly took it out by cutting a massive chunk out of the nape of it's neck, the last of the three tower soldiers took out the second giant.

Now the only one left was... where was it? Will didn't see it anywhere.

Looking out at the other soldiers, he realized they were looking right at his tower, and just as his eyes met with those of a dark haired man, his world exploded.

It was an odd sensation. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. He vaguely heard Tug and Rain crying out. They probably had been for a while, trying to get his attention.

But now he was flying threw the air, watching as the top half of the tower, nothing but rubble now, flew around, and with him threw the air, some of it even hitting him, although with the shock he was having, he didn't feel it.

Finally, he hit the ground, and time went back to normal, just long enough for him to see the large chunk of tower roof hit him in the head, knocking him out.

* * *

Levi had heard the cry first, although he didn't immediately react with panic, more just curiosity, as to why someone would be crying "Giants!"

But as soon as he saw the three Titans, closing in on the camp, and fast, he immediately sprang into action, barking orders at the other confused scouts.

They got into position, and quickly dispatched the first two, but the third seemed to be distracted by something in the farthest tower from the encampment, squinting harder through the fog and drizzle, Levi saw something in the window.

And just as the eyes of the stranger met his, the tower's top exploded, the Titan's hand having slapped at it in its obvious attempt to get at the person within.

The person sailed through the air, hit by rubble several times, and finally landed, and knocked out by a beam from the roof of the tower. The Titan was looking confused to not have the person in its hand, but soon saw them laying prone on the ground.

It advanced.

But barely took a step when a spinning disk of silver and green ripped through the back of it's neck, a fanning fountain of crimson flying behind it. It hit the ground just as Levi landed, blood spots already evaporating from his blades.

Levi stood up from his landing crouch and after a quick survey of the land around them, making sure there where no other Titans, he sheathed his blades and approached the stranger.

As he approached the area the body had fallen, he was, honestly, confused as he saw no one. He was sure there was no way the person could have gotten up so quickly. Forget the fact that he'd clearly been knocked out cold by that beam, but his legs where hit by rubble a lot. At the least he should be limping, and therefore, unable to be very far in the ten seconds it had taken to kill the Titan.

And then he saw them. Or rather, saw an arm, but it didn't appear to be connected to anything. Levi's already frowning face frowned more. As he got closer, he started to realize what he was looking at.

The person was wearing a cloak, with mottled colors of green, brown, and gray. It did a remarkable job of making the person blend in with not just the grass, but even the rubble. He was sure this was a purposeful design in the cloaks making. It was also something he'd never seen before, so it really begged the question: Who was this person?

Not one of the scouts, that's for sure, as he'd have a different cloak.

A stowaway? Possible, but they'd been outside the wall's for about a week now, and they'd have been able to find out abut one by now if that where the case- although, with that cloak, it could harder.

Kneeling down, he finally removed he cowl from the person's head.

The face was young, a detail not immediately noticeable, as he had a very unkempt beard. Looking past it though, Levi judged that the stranger was probably as old as he was himself. He had smooth, light brown hair, although it was matted with blood and a bit dirty in general.

"Probably has a concussion..." he turned to find Petra looking down at the man in confusion but also pity.

"Take him inside and treat his wounds. I'm going to go check out the tower he was in, see if he left anything there.

Petra nodded as Levi turned and walk to the tower.

He expected to find a rucksack, but what he found was much more of a surprise. A pony and a wolf.

The pony was, as pony's tend to be, short, stubby, and barrel chested. It was a creamy gray, with scraggly, long fur and hair, matted with a bit of mud. The wolf was of a peppered gray, black and white, darker on it's back, with a ring of gray around its neck, and whiter on it s underbelly, snout, and paws.

Both regarded the short captain warily. The pony was shivering, and Levi worried if it was chilled from the rain and fog. The wolf was, surprisingly, much more docile than he imagined wolfs to be, as it merely watched him while being in a stance that was ready to pounce, but it never growled.

Looking around, he found a saddle and some packs. Picking them up, he saddled the pony and placed the packs in the straps connected to the saddle. He was careful to make no sudden movements that would spook either of the two, and while neither let their guard down, he managed to get everything done with no incident.

"Alright, I'm gonna take you to the stables with all the other horses..." he said, his voice calm as ever, but also surprisingly soothing. He sees the pony is willing to follow, and the wolf seems only willing because of the pony.

Once he'd got them safely in the stables, removes the saddle and packs from the pony, and covers it, as it's still shivering. He makes sure that they have fresh food and water, which they look greatly relieved about.

Once he's sure they'll be fine, he takes the packs with him inside and finds out where Petra put the man.

* * *

A few hours later, Levi is in the room with the stranger. He's been in there for about an hour now, waiting for him to wake up. While he waits, he studies him.

He was short, just as short as Levi was, possibly shorter. His hair and face was cleaned of blood, and he now has a gauze wrapped around his head, which has a slightly pink area on above his left eye. It'll need to be changed soon.

What was really off about him though was his attire- not just the cloak, which is now folded and sitting with all his other belongings.

His clothes were nothing like that of any of the towns, cities, or villages inside the walls. Even though they were obviously worn to the point of ruin, Levi could tell that the style was still very much different. It was much more... "Renaissance" was the only word he could use to describe it. A brownish-green tunic, with brown canvas breeches. Even the boots where very olden in style, made with soft hide, ended around the middle of the shin, with soft, but thick leather souls.

And then there were the weapons, which were by far the biggest surprise. All weapons had been removed from him and were in a separate room. He'd taken the time to inspect them before coming to wait for the man to wake.

The first inspected were in a scabbard that was made to rest at the hip, and built to hold two different blades, a knife and a short sword. As he he admired the knife, he took in how heavy it was, how it was obviously very sharp and well cared for. Then he inspected the short sword, and found it to be just a bit heavier than the knife, and just as sharp.

He noticed how both blades where clearly made by a master blacksmith, and in the old fashioned way.

Now, the blades where one thing. He could maybe understand someone having them while being outside the walls, as it was exactly what the scouts used as well, although, these blades where clearly not made for slicing threw a Titan.

But what really confused him was the other weapons. A bow and arrows. At first he thought that perhaps the man was a hunter, but when he looked closer at the bow, he mostly discarded that theory, as it was clearly made for more than taking out wild animals. The bow was made to cause serious damage. He was even a bit shocked at the draw weight on it as he was barely able to pull it back an inch.

The quiver was made of molded leather, and had a belt attached to it that would secure it to the wearers chest without causing any disruption in movement of the arms.

Looking at the arrows, he saw that there appeared to be different ones. They were mainly the standard- if a bit heavy duty- arrows, with three different others.

The first of the unusual arrows was one that resembled the head of a mace. A very small, sharp, pointy tipped, arrow dynamic mace, but a mace resemblance for sure. He could just imagine something like this being able to penetrate metal and burring deep into whatever lay behind it.

The second unusual arrow, on first look appeared quite... nonlethal. It wasn't sharp at all, although it did have one point at its tip, so that it could sale through the air with more permission. When he picked it up, he found it to be quite light, compared to the others, even though the head was the largest of the other arrows. After looking at it for a few minutes, he saw something on its nearly black surface. Rubbing his thumb across what looked like a deep scratch, a sort of panel in the surface slid open to reveal a hollow inside to the head.

Levi had to admit, he was impressed. It was obvious that the compartment was for sending small items, or messages to someone. Not for hurting, although it could possible cause a rather nasty bruise if needed to.

The last one was, rather not an arrow as just the shaft and fletching, with no head, although the tip was carved into, making a corkscrew. He couldn't imagine it causing much damage, unless it was shoved through someones eye by hand, so he was at a loss as to what it's purpose was.

In the packs he found other odd things. There was some kind of brass cylinder with knobs at both ends, more of the odd arrows, a a pack full of different colored chalk balls, with what looked like fuses coming out of them- it didn't take a genius to guess what they were for.

Now, most of these things where all very alien to him, but there was one thing that he recognized. They'd been wrapped up when he retrieved the packs from the tower, so he'd not known at the time, but once he removed the cloth on them, he was surprised to find 3DMG, only it was missing the cord launcher and thruster.

But they weren't just any old 3DMG, he knew they were from one of the soldiers from they're party that had been taken out by a Titan kicking him while he was in mid air. They'd left his gear behind because it was useless.

So the possibility of this person being a stowaway was even more likely now.

* * *

One thing he was very interested in though, that would hopefully clear some things up, was what appeared to be a journal, which he was now looking through for the hundredth time, frowning in a rare show of frustration.

The problem was the language.

Now it was very clear that they person wasn't from any of the inner wall cities or towns. He could still possibly be from a village. A very obscure, forgotten village.

But Levi doubted that, even though at the same time, he couldn't think of another explanation.

After all, surely he didn't come from outside the walls? No one could possibly live outside the walls, alone, for more than a week.

After staring at the pages for a few minutes he realized that there were dates. Decoding wasn't something he'd done in a long time, nor was it something he'd done that often. But when he needed to, he could do it.

So, he set to the task of decoding, starting with the dates. First he made a table with the alphabet with his language in a bottom box, laving the top box blank. Finding the most recent entry, which looked fairly new, probably about two days, maybe even a day and a half old. The month was August, and it had about that many letters written. So, he wrote down the other language's A, U, G, S, and T. He continued this with the other Dates, and after having gotten them all, he then started on the actual entries.

It took him nearly four more hours, as he realized that, unlike the codes he'd had to break in his years before the survey courps, which were either numbers or other letters that were all in caps, this was a completely different, written language, which included caps and lower cases, and even possibly some different punctuation symbols.

Finally, at around midnight, he'd finally managed to get he first entry decoded. It was a bit rough, as the literal translations of languages tend to be, but it's not so mangled that he can't understand what is being written.

Though, "understanding" what the words are saying, and "understanding" what they're saying as a whole are different stories.

Rearranging a few of the words, so it flowed better, in cause he should need to report this, read through it.

_October,_

_This will be the first entry of, what I hope to be, many more. _

_I arrived in this land in August. I don't know the actual date, as I was knocked out, and possibly out for a long time maybe a day or two._

_The ship I was in was hit by a large storm that blew us inland. Most, if not all, of the men died. I could not find the captain, but I'm almost sure he sank at sea. The only survivors were myself and my horse. _

_We packed any belongings we could find, although food was not one of them, as it had been washed away. I set the boat on fire, giving the sailors as proper a funeral as only I could. _

_My first encounter with the giants was unpleasant. I'd found a nice burrow that Tug and I could fit comfortably into. This, I now know, is a horrible idea, as when I awoke the next morning, an impossibly massive eye was looking at me through the entrance._

_To sum it all up, I spent three days trapped in the burrow, surviving on bugs, and roots that I found while digging a tunnel in the back of the burrow._

_Once I was finally free, I escaped at night, when the giant would be knocked out cold. I found a new companion in my escape as well. It appears that there was a burrow right next to the one I was in, that housed a pack of wolfs. In the giants trying to get to me, the ground shaking must have scared them off. Unfortunately, they left one behind, probably a runt._

_I've taken her in. Her name is Rain, and she's grown into a very beautiful animal, and is quite intelligent._

_And that's all that's really happened. I'm sitting high in a tree now, as I've learned to do every night before the sun comes up. I find a place high enough that the giants can't reach, and get what sleep I can, although, my training keeps me from sleeping too deep, so if one does manage to be tall enough, I can move higher. Come nightfall, once they're all fast asleep, I'll scale down the tree, find my companions, and move on to the next area. _

_I've not got a clue as to where I'm heading, but I'm hoping I'll find actual people. I'm sure they're here somewhere in the land, as I'd gotten this very journal from an abandon village. _

_That's it for now. I've only got a few more hours before daybreak, and I'd like to get some rest before they wake up and catch my sent. _

_-Will Treaty_

Levi was honestly unsure if he believed it or not. And it wasn't even translation error to be blamed.

This... Will Treaty was going to have some explaining to do. Which, as Levi looked over, looked like it might be able to happen soon.

He was waking up.

* * *

_**AN: Okay, wow... So, I have to say, you all can thank "honest critic" for this chapter. It's not to say that all of you haven't been very supportive, you have, but their review was the one that got me. Literally, I got their reply about 9 hours ago, read it, and was immediately inspired to write the next chap. **_

_**Because I can't message them, and I want to thank them, I shall do that here, in hopes that they read this AN.**_

_**Thank you, Honest Critic. I've been having major writers block for basically all of my stories, so the fact that your review inspired me so much that I've spent the last three hours writing nonstop on this chapter, which I honestly didn't really know where it was going until, like, 1:30 pm, is really amazing.**_

_**And I'd like to thank all of you others. Honestly, you have NO idea how happy I was to actually go back and look at all the reviews. This is he first story I've got that doesn't have a single flame. Not even a comment on my horrid spelling and grammar! Even my two most popular story's had some pretty harsh stuff in its very first reviews. Then again, back then I didn't really check my spelling... at all... 9.9**_

_**Aaaaanyway...**_

_**I guess I've gotten better, and that's why you're not all textually pulling your hair out and screaming at me. **_

_**And while we're on the subject, if I've missed something in my proof reading, please forgive me. About half way through proof reading, I started to kinda pass out, because I stayed up all night. So, like, when I'm reading something, and am so tired I'm literally looking at the words like**__** 6_6**__** I actually start to hear random words being inserted into the internal monolog I have going about the story. **_

_**I mean, it's like:** _Looking at the arrows, he saw that there appeared to be different **_(fluffy pinatas)_** ones.

_**So, I decided to just go though and spell check things. I'm fairly sure things look okay, but I can always come back in fix it later. I'm just afraid of leaving it in my doc. box to fix after I wake up, because I might never get back to it for a whole year... so yeah. I apologies if there were some rushed things, or missed typos and such.**_

_**In other bidness: **_

_**I've got the idea for the next chapter forming, and I'll try to get it done as soon as possible, but I make no promises. **_

_**And in case you're wondering, this is all taking place before the Mily Cyris Titans. I've got... some big plans for how things go down in regards to how our three future scouts meet Will. **_

_**Anyway, R&amp;R and tell me what you think. Also, Honest Critic, was this a good enough start to Will's first actual encounter with them? :)**_


	6. Chap 6: Even More Unbelieveable

**Chap. 6: Even More Unbelievable**

Will had woken to the sound of scratching. After a bit of listening, he determined someone was writing something, about ten feet from where he lay. He cracked his eyes open, so that while everything was still very much blurry, he could see just enough definition to tell where the person was, and what their positioning in the room was.

Their back was turned, so he looks as best he could to see if any others were in the room. He saw none.

Finally letting his eyes open more, he took in more details, more information.

First off, his cloak and weapons weren't on him,or even in the room. He felt panic raise in him for a moment but he forced himself to calm back down. He couldn't have the other person knowing he was awake just yet.

Second he assessed the person. They looked like they'd be short if standing. Their clothes were tight fitting, though looked made for easy movement. Had definite muscle, although nothing close to what Will had, so if it came to a fight, it was would be determined not by strength but by skill, and how quick the other was.

Any other details couldn't be taken from the person at the current moment, so he assessed himself. Last he could recall, he was wondering where the last giant had gone, and then nothing.

Whatever happen, it must have caused him injury, because he was feeling anything but pleasant.

Most noticeable, was the gauze wrapped around his head, and going by the hangover level headache he had, he'd be willing to bet he had a concussion. It was hard to tell what else was hurting over _that _pain, but he managed to at least figure out that his right leg was hopefully just sprained, but possibly broken. His back and the right side of his ribs ached too, as well as the skin feeling a bit raw and abused, as if he'd fallen from the tower and hit the ground- which was probably what happened.

So if it really came down to a fight, he was sure he'd be able to do some things, but he didn't think he chances of winning were all that great.

So, avoid a fight if he could.

* * *

Will waited another hour, observing the person. They seemed pretty intent on their task, whatever it was.

Deciding that he wasn't going to be getting anymore information if he just laid there, he decided to finally "wake up"

Shifting, and sighing, and just basically making a show of coming to, he had the attention of the other immediately.

When the person faced him, Will had a vague memory of having seen the face before, but couldn't remember when- so probably sometime during whatever happened to him to cause the concussion.

They had dark, and sharp eyes, emotionless. Really, his whole face was just that, emotionless. Calm, collected. Ready for anything.

He'd make a good Ranger.

"So you're finally awake. Guess that's a good sign then." he said, voice deep and smooth. "Unless... you're some rotten _stowaway_." he said, his eyes suddenly gaining a venomous edge.

Will frowned, trying to make sure he understood what was said. As he'd observed before, they're language wasn't that different from his own. Some words were just said differently, with an accent. But he was pretty sure he knew what was said.

"I... found you. Followed here." he said.

The man's eyes grew even more suspicions. "By 'you' do you mean _me _or the whole Survey Corps?"

Will frowned, not quite sure about the last bit. It sounded like he'd said "hole survay corpse". "Hole" could be "whole" easily, so it was then easy to tell that, at the least, "survay corpse" was the group of people. And "corpse" could be "corps" like the Ranger _Corps, _and not a dead body. But simply put, the question was: "By 'you' do you mean me or the whole group."

"The Survay Corps. Saw kill giant. Followed. Think it safe with you. No alone." he said.

"Hmm... So you're telling me that you've been alone out here, for half a year, see us kill a Titan, and follow us. Is that about it? Oh, and if you're not a stowaway, then why is it you have some of our equipment?"

Again, Will frowned. There were more things he didn't understand in there, not just with the language barrier.

First of all, he understood the "for half a year" part, but just how did this person know that? Secondly, what was a Tytain? Probably what they called the Giants, so... than maybe it was Titan? Large, tall, and strong things were referred to as Titans. Back home, the giant of a man that lives with Malcolm the Healer was often referred to as a Titan. Even Horace was called a Titan Knight by some. And lastly, the equipment was probably the odd metal box with the oddly shaped blades, and the hollow metal cylinders.

Nodding he was sure he understood. "Yes, all truth. Found box of blades last building you camp in. But... How you know half year?"

The man regarded Will for a moment before turning and pulling a thin book off the table, along with some sheet of paper. Will recognized it as his Journal. Part of him wanted to snatch it from him, but then, he'd not just been writing the Journal for himself. In the chance that he did find other people, he'd planned to show it to them, hoping it'd help clear some things up. It wasn't like he'd put any sensitive information in it. Perhaps personal thoughts, but nothing that would be detrimental to the Rangers or anyone else.

"I've been translating what you wrote, and figured it out in you're first entry." he said. "Can't say I really believe it though."

"What not believe?" Will asked. He thought he was getting better at figuring out their speech patterns, enough to not have to think too hard about them. It helped that he was finally talking face to face with them, and knowing what context clues there were, as opposed to listening to a conversation he didn't know the actual subject on.

"I don't believe that you've been outside the Walls for half a year and survived, when we can't barely survive for more than three weeks. That's what. I don't believe that you could have just crashed on some... what was the word-" he looked back at some of the other papers for a moment before turning back with one, "- beach? That not only where you alone, but you had others with you, even if they did die. You really expect me to believe that there are others out there, with Titans, whose only purpose in life is to eat and throw up humans?"

Will had to take a few moments to make sure he understood, but once he was- at least fairly- sure he had it, he nodded. "Yes. All true. No Titans in my land. Horrors, yes. But no man eating Giants."

* * *

Levi internally growled. He supposed he'd always known that, surely, there were other lands out there, but with nothing keeping the Titans out, surely they'd have already been over run by the breasts by now? Unless they made a wall, but from what the man said, it could be assumed that no such thing was done, as it was clear he was saying Titans weren't in his land at all.

"How are you keeping them out?" he asked. He wasn't yet willing to believe that someone could honestly have just landed here, with no knowledge of Titans, and still be able to survive. But he'd play along for now. "How do you keep the Titans from invading you're land."

The man, Will, went into thought and then said, "Large body water. Deep. Parts my land and this land."

The more this Will Treaty said, the more Levi couldn't believe.

To accept that there were other lands out there was one thing, but to think that there were bodies of water that separated the lands, that were so big that not even a Titan could cross was a completely different matter.

He supposed that one of the other odd words in the literal translation, one that referred to a body of water, called "sea". There were ponds, rivers, and lakes, but never had he heard of a sea. Perhaps it was just his land's word for a lake? But even a Titan could cross a lake. So it'd have to be bigger. Much bigger.

He knew that there were old books that told stories of the outside world, but they had been marked as illegal and banned, most having been burned. Still, he knew that they couldn't have gotten them all, and weather they'd actually tell him about this sea or not, he'd like to get his hands on one.

Before he could ask more questions, a knock at the door sounded.

"Come in." Levi said.

Petra opened the door and peaked in. "Oh, good, he's awake. I figured he might be hungry, so I brought some soup. Captain, you missed dinner. I suggest you go eat too."

Levi was about to dismiss it but then decided better of it. He needed more time to think, and he _was_ feeling hungry. Some sleep might do him some good too.

"I'll be back to question you more tomorrow." was all he said before walking out and shutting the door.

Will watched as the man left, leaving a women with light, red hair and eyes brown, almost golden in the fire light.

She looked at him apologetically. "Sorry if he was a bit gruff with you."

"Gruff?" Will asked, not quite sure on that one.

"Oh, you don't speak our language?"

"Not... all. Most words like my language. Some words not."

"Oh well, 'gruff' is like... rough? Mean? Rude? Know any of those?"

Will nodded, and smiled, his charming one. It was nice, even though he was the one doing it. He hadn't realized how much he missed smiling at another human beings. Not that Tug and Rain didn't get smiles, but they weren't Human. Tug was the closest to human he got, but even then, it was different.

Petra set a tray down in front of him, and Will's stomach growled like a beast. He'd been surviving on mostly fruits, rarely able to get meat as it'd take too long to prepare, and he had precious little time in his nightly migrations. He dug in with little hesitation.

Once he'd gotten through half of it, Petra spoke up again. "So what's your name? I'm Petra Ral.

"Will Treaty." Will said, shaking her hand. "Who other man?"

"Oh, the Captain is Levi Ackerman. He's... not really what people think honestly. Most think of them as a hero. When they think of him, they think tall, silent, and a people's person. But if you've met him, which you have, you'll know he's not like the flawless hero they imagine. First of all, he's short. He's also really, surprisingly tense. _All the time_. But most surprising to his 'fans' is that he's actually quite rude and unapproachable- Oh, what's this? Did I say something funny?"

Will was chuckling, and almost crying. If he was understanding what she'd just said, than she'd just described his own teacher and father figure, Halt.

"Yes. You make me think to my teacher when you say this." he chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye.

"Oh, is you're teacher just like that?" she asked, smiling.

"Very much. He one time slander king of my land so get expelled from land so he come save me in _other_ land."

Petra blinked. She'd not known anything about what they'd been talking about, so knew nothing of other lands.

"So wait... you're saying you're not from within the walls?"

"Walls? No. I no see walls since I land here."

And so Will spent the next three hours describing, as best he could while trying to self translate, what his land was like.

Petra was actually very helpful in that she told him how to pronounce some things in their language, as well as telling him what something was called in their language if they had different words for it.

By the time she left to get some sleep herself, Will felt he had a much better understanding of the language. With a bit more practice, he was positive that he'd be speaking fluently in no time.

* * *

_**AN: Wow. I mean it. Wow. You guys practically jumped on this story like a hungry predator the second it was updated. And the enthusiasm! I wasn't quite sure if I'd be able to get the next chap. up so soon, but you're enthusiasm got to me :) And I've also got the next chapter forming in my head! **_

_**I gotta say, it was kinda odd trying to make Will talk like that. Having to take out some words, or replace them to make it so that it does sound like he really doesn't know how to speak like them quite yet. He won't be out of the woods in this regard yet for the next chapter, but it will have improved- so if it was bothing you worry not, it'll be a lot smoother, and will get smoother, the more chapters go.**_

_**Also, someone questioned about people back home trying to find Will. I've got a plot for that, but I'm not sure yet how it'll be included, so I'll just say it now: Yes, they've already started trying to find them- them being the whole crew that's gone missing. The land that AOT is from is farther than anyone, even Skandian, have ever gone, so they don't even know its there. Since Halt is retired from the Rangers, he's out looking too, and because his lovely lady is retired as well and won't let him go alone- because there's no way she trusts him to not take care of himself properly- she's with him. **_

_**I want you to know now though, that they won't be coming into the picture any time soon, as far as I can see plot wise. But it **_**will**_** happen. I just don't know when, or how.**_

_**Oh, and I also added something to the last chapter today once I realized I'd totally forgotten it, and it was something that really should have been put in. So, in case you don't want to go back and just completely re-read the whole chapter, I'll just post the section below. :)**_

* * *

In the packs he found other odd things. There was some kind of brass cylinder with knobs at both ends, more of the odd arrows, a a pack full of different colored chalk balls, with what looked like fuses coming out of them- it didn't take a genius to guess what they were for.

Now, most of these things where all very alien to him, but there was one thing that he recognized. They'd been wrapped up when he retrieved the packs from the tower, so he'd not known at the time, but once he removed the cloth on them, he was surprised to find 3DMG, only it was missing the cord launcher and thruster.

But they weren't just any old 3DMG, he knew they were from one of the soldiers from they're party that had been taken out by a Titan kicking him while he was in mid air. They'd left his gear behind because it was useless.

So the possibility of this person being a stowaway was even more likely now.

* * *

_**Welp, that's about it. Thank you guys sooooooo much for you're support, and enthusiasm. It really does help. R&amp;R, and tell me what you think.**_

_**(Also, as a side note to Honest Critic, you don't have to write fanfiction to have an account. You can just use it to favorite and put on alerts to you're favorite stories, so you know immediately when something was updated. It's so much easier, and it allows for messaging. If you don't want to make an account, that's fine, but I just want to make sure you know you don't have to write fanfiction to have an account :) I had this account for about a year, maybe two, before I wrote my first fanfic, which was just a one shot.)**_


	7. Chap 7

**Chap. 7: **

Once left alone, Will found himself wishing to go to sleep as well, but resisted. Instead, he familiarized himself with his surroundings.

He could hear the breathing and shifting of another person outside the door, and knew that said door was locked. The only window in the room was high on the wall, and so small that not even he could get though it. The walls themselves seemed fairly thick, although they were also very old and worn. The mansion was clearly abandoned before the Scouts settled in.

There was a bucket next to his bed, which he assumed was for if he needed to throw up, which he didn't, although he felt a bit dizzy every now and then.

Finally, when he'd exhausted all the rooms details, he settled down at the table that Levi had been working at. Papers where scattered all over, with failed translations. His journal lay at the corner of the table, with two pieces of paper sandwiched into it. Opening it up, he found it to be the first entry of the journal, and he'd assume that it was the same for the papers, only translated.

"Hmm... if I'm going to be sticking with these guys, I'm going to need to learn how to write like them too, not just speak..." he mused.

He frowned because he wasn't very keen on the task, as translating by comparing his entry and Levi's translated one would need a great deal of focus. Thankfully, after shuffling though the other papers he was relieved to find a page with a table on it. The table was made up of most of his language's letters, and looked to have all of their language's letters. The only thing missing from his language was some uppercase words, which he took the liberty to fill out, just so there was no confusion.

Looking through the table, he found that there were some similarities, but they were very slight. It could just be the style this Levi person writes in, but their language looked more... blockish, rather then curvy and flowing like his own. His language connected the letters together, in a looping style. Theirs were separate. But most of the lower case words resembled their lowercase words, so it wasn't so hard once he figured that out.

He practiced by translating entries in his journal to their language.

As he worked, he had to take breaks often, as the constant concentration caused his headache to become almost blinding. Because of this, he was only able to finish translating the 2nd to 5th entries, and was halfway through the 6th when he heard foot steps approaching his door.

He'd taken note that the guard changed every three hours, but it had not yet been three hours since the last switch. The place had also been buzzing with activity since before daybreak, and it'd been about four hours since the sun had broken the horizon, yet not once- aside from the guard switch- did he hear anyone approach or leave this area.

So, chances were, he had a visitor.

And just as he thought, the footsteps stopped right outside his door. He heard some muffled voices, one sounding familiar, and then the sound of a key jingling in the lock. The door swung open to reveal Petra, holding a tray of food and water as well as some clean wrappings for his head, and what could be an anesthetic in a bottle.

"Morning, Will." she said almost in a whisper, so as not to agitate his headache. He appreciated it.

"Morning, Petra." Will replies, smiling. The food smelled nice. It was soup again, but this time it had a chunk of bread.

"Sorry I couldn't get you anything more breakfasty, but we're starting to run low on supplies." she said as she set the tray down on the bed, patting it for Will to sit down, so she could clean his wounded forehead and change the wrappings.

Will did as was told and after she'd finished he nodded his thanks. "This food fine. Honestly, any food good to me, after eating bugs and tree root for half the year."

As Will dug in, Petra said, "Well, not to rush you- by all means take you're time- but once you're done, I'm to escort you to Captains Levi and Erwin. They'd like to talk to you about you're story."

"This fine. I expect I would have to speak to Levi again soon. I do not know this Erwin though, but this is still fine."

Petra nodded. She was over by the table, and looking through the papers that Will had written the translated entries on.

"Were you the one that translated these?" she asked, picking one up and studying it.

Will swallowed a spoonful of the soup and cleared his throat. "Yes. If I am to stick with you, I must also learn how to write like you, not speak only."

Petra nodded in agreement as she continued to read the paper. "You did pretty good. It's not perfect, but being that this is a literal translation, it probably wouldn't. Would you like me to teach you how to write as well as speak?"

Will paused, looking up uncertainly. He'd already seen that she was a good teacher in regards to helping him speak, but she'd not offered to actually give lessons. He'd be happy for the help, or course, but did she really have the time to teach him?

She seemed to sense what he was thinking and looked up from the paper, smiling kindly. "Will, it's okay. I won't lie, I am one of the elites, so I'll have responsibilities that will take priority over teaching you, but I _do_ have free time. I normally just read in my room during that time, so it's really no bother."

Still uncertain, but grateful, Will nodded, "I would like it very much for you to help me."

Still smiling, Petra changed the subject. "Now that we've cleared that up, are you almost done eating?"

Will looked down and saw that there was still two spoonfuls of soup left, so he just mopped it up with the rest of his bread and finished it off with two bites. Setting the dishes aside he stood, brushing crumbs off of his shit. His thumb caught in a hole and ripped it open wider.

Petra frowned. "Hmm... I'll have someone look into finding you a spare set of clothes. Do you want me to have that fixed, or do you want to just throw it?"

Will looked down at the shirt. It was honestly his last remaining shirt, as the others where covered in holes, and loose at the seams. This one wasn't really that much better, but, even with its new big hole, it was still better than they were. Still, perhaps it was time to retire them. He had grow a bit more muscle- climbing those trees day and night could do that to you- so the sleeves no longer fit right anyway.

"Throw them out."

Petra nodded and headed for the door. Gesturing for Will to follow, he did so. Before leaving though, Petra turned to the guard.

"You are releaved, but could you do one more thing?"

"Yes, ma'am." The guard said, smirking.

"Will needs some new clothes, can you see if anyone has any extras that he can have or at least borrow?"

"I'm sure I have a few. I'll ask around too though, just in case someone has a better fit..." Will noticed the man was refering to their height difference. The man was about a foot taller than he was.

"Great, thanks. You can just return them here when you get them."

"Will do..." the guard said, stalking off down the hall.

As they walked, Will decided to ask something that had been bothering him since he woke up the other night. He knew he shouldn't really worry, as the two could certainly fend for themselves, and have done so much longer than it's been since he last saw them, but he had to know anyway.

"So, Petra, do you know about my horse and wolf?" he asked.

"Oh them? Yes, Captain Levi found them at the base of the tower that you were knocked out of. He put them in the stables, with all the other horses."

Will sighed in relife. "And they are unharmed?"

At this Petra frowned, which worried Will. "Well, they look fine, both of them. Neither look like they even got scratched. But any time anyone approaches, the wolf snaps at them. Doesn't bite or anything, but seems really territorial. Honestly, we were beginning to question if the wolf was just that, and that it wasn't yours at all. But I guess that's been proven wrong now... And then the horse... Well, we're pretty worried about it. Not once has anyone seen it not quivering. It's part of why we wondering if the wolf was actually yours. For all we knew, the wolf was protecting its dinner, and the horse knew it- Oh? Why are you smiling?"

"Oh, sorry, it just that they are acting as they should." he said, and at Petra's look of confusion, Will went into thought, deciding how much he should and shouldn't say. Realizing that he'd have to tell them at some point anyway, he decided.

"See, back in my land, I am what they call a... hmmm... not sure if you have same word for it or not. We are called Rangers. We are law keepers of a sort. We watch, and report bad things. My horse, Tug, specially trained to be a Ranger's horse. It has been trained to do certain things, for certain situations. He very intelligent, as all Ranger's horses are. I train Rain, my wolf, same way. She not as smart as Tug, but still very intelligent."

"Oh... So, then... Tug... isn't sick?"

"No. He just train to do that. Because I am missing from him, and he saw me hurt, it signal to other Rangers that happen by that his rider is in need of help. Rain simply protecting her brother. Only human she has ever seen is me, so she not trust anyone."

"That's impressive..." Petra said, wide eyed. Then she frowned "But wouldn't some law enforces have bigger horses? Something that can go faster than a pony- no offense of course!"

Will smiled a smile that many a Ranger have done and shared when asked this question.

"Oh, do not worry. Ranger's horses can outrun any horse bread, and Tug can out run most other Ranger horses."

Petra, like many before her, looked skeptical, but was one of the few that let it drop, probably deciding to just see it for herself.

They were also stopping at a door.

Petra knocked and when a muffled and firm voice called for them to come in, she opened the door and gestured for Will to enter.

The first person Will took notice of was Levi, looking just as emotionless as he had yesterday. Next was a blonde haired man. He looked serious, though not quite emotionless like Levi. Last of all was a very bubbly woman, who was wearing something similar to Malcolm's eye glasses. He'd only seen one other person wear something similar, only it was only for one eye. He was slightly surprised to see someone from a different land wearing them. They also seemed to be strapped to her head.

As if she was unable to hold in her excitement any longer, the women jumped up and bounded over to Will. She was just about to grab his hands, her mouth open as if about to say something, when Will's instinctive training kicked in, and he grabbed at both her wrists with his right hand, pulling them to his left, while his left hand was in the knife hand position at her throat.

The whole time, the women was smiling.

"Well, I probably shouldn't have done that, huh?" she giggled.

Blinking, Will released her and stepped back.

She rubbed her hands while chuckling, "I'm sorry, I was just so excited to meet someone that's been outside the wall for more than a year. I just couldn't contain myself."

Will noticed that both Levi and the blonde man had apparently stood up in alarm, and where now sitting back down. Levi was actually showing an emotion now, looking like annoyance, although it was barely noticeable.

"Hanji- if he's to believed- then why would you think it would be a good idea to jump him?" Levi sighed.

"I just wanted to say hi!" she defended dramatically.

As Petra passed, Will heard her mutter, "More like beg to experiment on."

"Alright, that's enough now. I think it's about time we introduced our selves?" said the blonde man

The bubbly women nodded vigorusly. Turning to Will, she proclaimed, "As you heard, my first name is Hanji, but what you don't know is my last name, Zoe! So, Hi! I'm Hanji Zoe!"

Will wasn't normally one to be drained by bubbly people. That was normally Halt. Bubbly people were normally nice to be around to him. But even this Hanji women made him feel a bit drained, like she was sucking the energy from him. Would explain why she was so energetic...

"I'm Levi Akerman." Levi said simply, not aware or not caring that Petra had already introduced him.

"And I'm Erwin Smith. It is a pleasure to finally meet you."

Will nodded, "I am Will Treaty. Pleasure to meet you as well."

Erwin smirked, "I'd heard that you didn't speak our language. You seem to be adapting quite well?"

"My language does not seem to be so different from your language. Some words are different, but Petra has helped me."

"Well, than I look forward to the conversation we'll be having. Please sit," Erwin motioned for the chair at the other end of the table from him. Once Will took it, he realized he'd been feeling a bit nauseous, but with Hanji's sudden not-attack on him, he'd not really taken notice. He was honestly rather pleased to find that his Ranger training hadn't suffered much, as he'd managed to put Hanji- a women that was much taller than him- in a rather nice lock, without his injuries getting in the way.

Bringing him out of his thoughts, Erwin continued to talk.

"So, from what I gather from Levi, you claim to have not only live outside the wall's for half a year, but that you never have lived inside the walls? That you come from a different land completely?"

Will nodded, "Yes. I have never seen anything like the Walls Petra has described, and had not heard of them until she told me of them."

"And what is it that you said keeps the Titan's out of your land?" Erwin asked.

"The Sea. It large, deep body of water. Sometimes it only takes a few days, other times it takes many moon cycles to cross. I would say it takes many moon cycles to get from this land to my land."

"So how is it you ended up in this land?"

And so Will told them of how the ship got caught in the storm, of how he was knocked out, and so didn't see anything that happened, only that when he awoke, he was on a beach- which he had to explain was a long stretch of land that met the sea, and that it was filled with sand.

They almost didn't believe him until Petra piped in saying that there was such a thing within the walls, although it was the only one, but it wasn't called a beach, though she couldn't remember what it was called.

He told them of the first night he was in the land, and how it seemed peaceful at first, but the next day he woke to find a giant eye staring at him. How, when night feel, he tested just how asleep the giant was.

He told them of how he survived since escaping; the system he used, how he kept his companions safe, and how he kept himself safe. They seemed quite surprised that he was able to climb the trees, but had no choice but to believe him as it was the only way he could have survived otherwise.

He told them of how he'd woken up 6 days ago to the sound of a Titan falling to the ground and watching as it disintegrated, and how he'd seen the retreating horseback riders. How he followed their tracks to the crumbling farm house, found the map that pointed out to their next location. And finally after taking a night to rest in the farm house, he headed out and found them, finally, and camped out in the tower.

"I had been woken to the sound of the Titans coming, but when I looked, none of the men you have seemed alarmed. I did the only thing I could think of, and shouted."

"That would explain why I heard someone yelling 'Giants' instead of Titans." Levi said.

"Yeah, I'd wondered about that too..." Hanji said. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm willing to believe his story."

"Hanji, you treat Titan's as if they were misbehaving pets." Petra deadpanned, "You're judgement doesn't hold that much value, no offense.

"However, I am willing to believe it too, though not just because of what he just told us, but because he told me of his land and even other lands he's been to. It was too detailed."

"He has had half a year to think it up though..." Levi mused.

"Um... If you want, I can show you a map?" Will said.

* * *

_**AN: AHHHHH! I'm soooo sorry guys! I meant to have this up yesterday but the computer decided to go kaput on me! Twice! IT erased all that I'd written, which was about half way done each time, so this is the third redo. And then I coudn't find a good stopping point and had to rake my brain for more to say. **_

_**Anyway, I'm working on the next chap. now, so I'll **_**hopefully **_**have it up tonight.**_

_**Well, that's it for now. Till next chap!**_


	8. Chap 8: The True Horror About Titans

**Chap. 8: The True Horror About Titans**

"I had a map in my packs. More than just one map, really. They are of my land, as well as other land." Will said. He doubted that he'd be able to get to his things so easily, but he had to try. He felt naked without his cloak, and weapons.

Unfortunately, but as predicted, it was not to be.

Levi stood. "I'll go get them. I believe I did see them when I was looking through his things." he said. Will was starting to see what Petra meant by "rude". He didn't seem to care that stating it so bluntly, right in front of him, was rude. But, than again, Halt wasn't much better, most of the time.

Sitting back into the chair he was in, he waited in silence. Once Levi's foot steps had faded, Erwin spoke up.

"Sorry, Will. I realize you probably don't like that you're thing's where looked through, but surely you understand our precaution. From what I heard what you have, I'd be willing to bet that you're no normal person from back in you're home land..."

Will blinked. "So you believe me?"

"Hmm... I can't say that I _never_ thought that there were other lands out there. I'm just surprised to hear that they're not populated by Titans. There really are none?"

"Well, there one man that tall, and called Titan... But he not as tall as these. He also very gentle. I gave him my dog, actually." Will smiled in memory of Shadow, but then frowned slightly at the memory of Banner, who was one of her's.

"But aside from him... My land has it's beasts, that for sure. The Wargals and the Kalkara for example. The Wargals are just as mindless as the Titans, but have a form of communication that makes them a frightening army when controlled by someone powerful. The Kalkara are much worse. They can think for themselves, and are good at it.

"But these Titans... They are a different kind of mindless. Wargals are simply animals. If left uncontrolled, they are like a bear, or a bore. They still feel and fear pain, still protective of their brothers. Even the Kalkara protect each other, and have their fears.

"The Titans do not. If they feel pain, they do not show it, and fear it even less. They do not care if one of their own get hurt. They do not seem to even be hungry, because they only go after me, never after Tug or Rain. I have watched as they walk right past group deer, and never even look, but the second they find my smell, they are on me."

"Not only are they after us humans," Levi spoke up as he entered the room again, two molded, leather tubs in hand, "but they don't even seem to need us for sustenance."

"What do you mean?" Will asked.

"We've only discovered one of them, so our information is a bit sketchy..." Hanji said, and at Will's blank stare, she went on to explain. "You see, Titan's don't have a digestive system that we humans- or really any animal- have.

"When we eat, the food is digested and goes through a process of being broken down. Everything that our body doesn't take from the food is turned into waste and we get rid of it by way of urination or deification." She paused to make sure Will was following her. When she saw that he was, she nodded and continued. "Titan's however, do neither. They don't even have the organ's for it. Now, the thing we found is what we assume to be the wastes of a Titan's meal, and it was only because a lucky scout-"

"Lucky is a real nice way to put..." Petra muttered bitterly.

"- got to see it happen that we know how they get rid of it. They _regurgitate_ it. It comes out in a sort of large sack, containing all the contents of its stomach."

Will looked slightly confused. How did that make it that they didn't use human's as sustenance?

Hanji smiled, as if she could read his mind. "What's immediately noticeable is that the bodies are still quite intact. And when we opened it up, we found that aside from a bit of burning, there was no damage to the people. We also deduced that the burns happened, not from the acid in the stomach, but because of how hot the Titan's are. They were basically boiled."

Now Will was looking a little sick, and it wasn't because of the concussion.

"Now, being that this was first that we ever found," Hanji continued, either not noticing or not caring that Will was obviously about to throw up himself, "we don't know if that was normal. But we do know that there is no other way for them to get rid of wastes. It could be that the Titan just hadn't been able to keep it in, and regurgitated sooner than it was suppose to. But even _then_, we didn't find any traces of acids. Any liquid we found came from that of the humans.

"So, if my hypothesis is right- and I have a good feeling it is- they gain nothing from eating human's."

Petra was already rushing over to Will with a bucket. She just barely made it, but Will was glad she had. As he threw up, he found it an endless cycle of sick, as throwing up made him think of the reason he was throwing up in the first place, and made him feel sick all over again.

Finally, once he'd exhausted all that his stomach had, he sat back, leaning against the leg of the table, not having realized that he'd slipped from the chair. The combination of the sweat on his brow and the gauze wrapped around his head made his forehead almost too itchy. Just as he was about to go rub at it, a hand stopped him and he looked to find that Petra was there, a we cloth in hand.

She wiped away the sweat from his cheek and cleaning off any sick that got on him as well. The wet cloth was cold and soothing. "I think it's time you got some rest..." she said.

"But the maps..." Will groaned, trying to stand.

Petra helped him up, but rather than sitting him down at his chair, she stirred him to the door. "You can go over that later. Come on."

Will was slightly disappointed, but realized it was probably no use anyway. In his current condition, he'd be more likely to call Hallasholm- capital of Skandia- Redmont Fief.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion, yet before he knew it, and with no memory of how they got there, they were standing at the door to the room he'd been in.

He cringed when Petra turned the nob of the door, and opened it, as the sound of it seemed to bounce around in his head, hitting and abusing his brain as it went.

Finally, he was laying down in his bed, and was asleep before Petra even had the blanket over him.

* * *

Will woke what felt like a life time later. Endless dreams of being swallowed, boiled, and then thrown back up continued to echo at the back of his mind as he looked around the room. It was dim, the only light coming through the window. It was either sun set or sun raise, and he'd be willing to bet it was sun raise.

His head was still pounding, his mouth tasted of bile, and his throat felt raw. He'd give anything for a glass of cold water. And just as the thought crossed his mind, he saw a glass sitting on the floor next to the bed. Grabbing it, he gulped it down, rinsing the bile away and soothing his throat.

Setting it back down, he took note that the glass must have been replaced several times, as there was sever water marks on the wooden floor, each more faded then the next. His gauze had also been replaced, fairly recently if the tightness of it was anything to go by.

He was just about to lay back down when he noticed something folded on the table. Standing, and after a bout of dizziness, he walked over and found a set of clothes. There were two long sleeve shirts and three short sleeve shirts, along with four pairs of breeches. They were definitely of a different style than his land. In fact, they were more advanced. The stitching was unlike what he'd ever seen, so neat and perfect, he had a hard time believing anyone human could have possibly sewn them.

Looking down at his own clothes, he grimaced. Not only where they tattered, but after days of wearing them, the sweat, dirt, and even some splinters of wood from climbing trees, they were downright dirty. So much so, no amount of scrubbing or patching could fix them. They were definitely done for.

He picked out one of the long sleeves, the color being forest green. The breeches he picked out where gray. The shirt was slightly baggy on him, but the breeches fit him almost perfectly. He picked up the rest of the clothes to set them over by his bed, but stopped when he saw another article of clothing; something he was all too familiar with and felt rather exposed without.

Setting the clothes back down, he picked the cloak back up, bringing it to his chest. Without it even being on him, it was already bringing a warmth to him that he'd been all too aware was missing before.

Ranger's may relay greatly on their skill in bows and arrows and other weapons, but it was the cloak that they valued most, for without it, they simply could not be Rangers. A Ranger's job, first and foremost, was to watch and listen, and the best way to get accurate information from doing so is to blend into the background. The weapons were only for instances where things got dicy.

With practiced ease, he had the cloak settled comfortably on his shoulders and cowl over his head in one smooth motion. Like slipping on a glove.

He felt at home at once. Oh, how he'd missed it. It wasn't like he'd never gone more than a few days without it on, but that was always by choice. It was a big difference to when it was taken from him, and he knew he'd not be able to have it.

This did make him wonder why they had decided to hand it over. They hadn't given him his weapons, so they still didn't appear to trust him. But if he really wanted to, he could easily slip away with just his cloak, especially with Tug. And then sneak back in when they were asleep and retrieve his things.

Shaking his head- and regretting it a moment later- he sat down at the table. He stared at it, wondering what was missing from it, when he realized suddenly what it was. All the papers, and even his journal weren't there.

They weren't any where in the room. Aside from the bed, table, chair, bucket, cup and clothes, there were no other objects in the room.

What had they done with his journal. Again, it wasn't like there was any personal information, or any information that he didn't already plan to tell them anyway in it, but something seemed off about the picture.

They give him his cloak back, but kept his weapon, packs, and took his journal. It just didn't make sense.

Just as he was beginning to form a means of getting past the door, and finding his things, he heard something like paper scrapping against fabric. Looking down, he found a small note pinned to his cloak. Blinking, he pulled the pin out and took the note.

_Give Guard_

It was the only part that he could read, as it was written in his language, or at least a fair attempt at it. The rest was written in their language, and while he recognized most of the characters, he couldn't quite remember how most of them translated into his, and without the alphabet table to help him, he was clueless as to what it said.

Deciding to just go along with it, but be cautious, he approached the door. Knocking, he waited a moment as the guard shifted outside.

"Yes?" came a strong voice.

"I have note I am to give you." he called through the door, and before the guard could question it, he slipping it under the door. There was a shifting sound as the guard retrieved the note, a moment of silence as he read, and then the sound of keys jingling as he unlocked the door.

Will stood back, not planning on dashing, but preparing to if need be. But when the door opened, it was to a smiling face. It was the same man that had been sent to find clothes for him

"It appears I'm to take you to Captain Erwin."

* * *

_**AN: Sorry guys, :P had a busy day yesterday and wasn't able to get this up. Might be a bit of a lag in updating for a lil bit, because of Halloween, but I promise I'll be working on the chapters.**_

_**As it is at the current moment, it's 3:00 am, and I need to be asleep before 4, so my sleep scheduled isn't completely ruined. I shall upload, edit and post it when I wake up, whatever time that is. **_

_**Well, though you'll be reading this after I've woken and posted, I shall say good night. I mean, it's night somewhere in the world, so, not completely untrue... **_

_**Anyway, R&amp;R, and tell me what you think :)**_

* * *

_**And now I'm awake, and finished editing! Woot **__**^_**____** Well, I'ma go ahead and say it if I don't post a chapter tomorrow, but Happy Halloween!  
**_

_**I'm gonna be a regeneration of Doctor Who. Female, American, Ginger Doctor. It's almost scary, isn't it? Girls can be down right scary, but then I'm also souless and am offended by everything! (To all those Gingers, I am sorry if you take offense to this, but I have a step mother that is a red head, and have three other friends that are red heads, and we all make the Ginger jokes. And to the American's that get offended because I'm stereotyping that American's get offended about everything- well, that kinda explains itself, doesn't it? Lol but seriously, I'm an American too, so don't get mad.)**_

_**Anyway, R&amp;R and tell me what you think. Also, if you want, tell me what you're Halloween costume is! I LOVE Halloween, and am always trying to figure out what costume to wear next year, so some ideas are always great. **_

_**Here, we'll make a contest of it. Best costume idea, you get to write a spoof that I'll post on the story, and give you recognition. :) **_

_**Well, that's it for now. Have fun trick or treating!**_


	9. Chap 9: Inside or Outside

**Chap. 9: Inside or Outside**

Will followed the man, who he found out was named Dieken. Aside from asking about how the clothes fit, they were silent for the walk though the mansion. Finally though, they reached the door that lead into the meeting room from the day before.

Dieken stepped in to announce Will's presence and then motioned him in. Everyone from the day before- Petra, Hanji, Levi, and Erwin- where there, but there were three others.

The first he noticed was a dark haired man. While he was handsome, his face was still neutral enough that he'd be able to blend into a crowd. The second was a golden haired man with a bit of a goatee. Both men where tall. The third one had short, wavy, light brown hair, which would probably look like Levi's hair if not for it's color and natural wave. He also appeared to be dressed similarly to Levi.

Really, the only thing not strictly "Levi" was his height, although he also appeared to be trying to pull off looking emotionless, but wasn't doing a very antiquit job at it.

Will walked over to the seat between Petra and the man with the goatee.

"Good to see you're still among the living." Erwin said slightly playfully.

"After all I have been through, I would be shamed if I died from a concussion." Will said. He was still on guard, still trying to figure out what they where up to. The fact that the goatee guy was sniffing him none too covertly, didn't help matters.

"We have been talking about you, or more specifically, what we are to do with you..." Erwin said, getting right to business. "You see, we'll be moving on soon. We're making our way back to the walls, as we've extended our stay longer than we were originally suppose to."

"And how does this effect me?" Will asked, his tone slightly clipped.

Erwin blinked, apparently slightly surprised at the tone. "Well, we had decided, if you wanted, to take you with us. We figured that you'd want the safety that the Walls provide."

Will was still slightly confused. "And what would happen to me inside the walls? Who's to say I'm not actually safer _outside_?"

Here, Erwin paused, not sure how to continue, although Will knew that he knew something.

"Under normal circumstances," Levi drawled, "You would be placed in a cell in the capital, and questioned thoroughly, until the court deems you safe to walk among the people."

Will frowned, not liking the sound of that. Then he remembered what Levi said first.

"Under _normal _circumstances?" he asked.

"Well, what we've been disguising is, if you give us no reason to mistrust you, we will act on the Court's behalf." Petra said. "You travel with us, give us the answers we ask for, truthfully, and show that you're not a threat to us, then we will let you live among the people, and won't even mention you to the court."

"So... you wish to undermined them?" he asked, a smirk starting to tug at his lips. He was still weary, but thought he was starting to see what might be going on.

Erwin smiled. "Yes, I guess you could put it that way. Our court would be more likely to lock you up for life, rather than let you live among the people. If they see you as a threat, even just a little, they'd do it, simply because you're an outsider, and one that has managed to survive outside the walls for more than two weeks.

"You see, they want to keep the people within the walls. They've been trying to get rid of the Scouts because we want to take back what was ours, the land outside the walls. They try to make it out that no one can possibly survive more than two weeks outside the walls, and while this isn't entirely false, they're reasoning is more selfish than for the good of mankind. They want the the money and power.

"If more people believed that they could survive outside the walls, they'd try to do it. And weather they actually manage to do it, or they die trying, it still means they're gone, that it'd be less money for the upper-class. And because you've lasted half a year, you threaten that long held belief."

Will nodded in understanding. He didn't like it, the government they had. But while he certainly could survive longer outside the walls, it wouldn't be a comfortable life. It was sad to say, but his illness induced sleep had been the most fitful sleep he'd had since his first night in this land. It'd also been the longest sleep.

"I wouldn't be completely free... I'd still have to be in hiding for a while." he said.

Erwin smirked. "Yes, that is true, but it's better than the alternatives, wouldn't you agree?"

"It would really depend on where I was kept..." Will said, hinting that he'd very much like to know where they planned to place him.

Nodding in understanding, Erwin said, "We thought, with you being in a rather ill condition, that we might place you with a doctor or at least, in the house next to his. He lives in one of the out-layer districts, on the first wall." Erwin paused here and drew out a quick sketch of how the walls where set up, and pointed at the one that Will would be at. "You'll be close to the outside, but the walls are taller than any Titan can even hope- if they were capable of doing so- to get over. The district is fortunately the one we will be making our way to."

Will went into thought. While he may have been without human contact in months, he didn't think he'd actually like to live in what was sounding like city. But, going by the sketch and what Erwin was saying, this district was not only on the first wall, closest to the outside, it would also have a gate that lead directly _to_ the outside. If he needed to, he'd have an easy way to escape and not have to go deeper in.

In the end, it was ideal. Comfort was something he could deal without when it came to keeping himself alive. He'd already been doing that since coming to this land. At least now he'd have an actual shelter.

Looking up, he searched Erwin's eyes, trying to discern if he might have some hidden motives. After all, why risk so much for just one person? One person that was a stranger, an outsider to, not only the walls, but to the whole land.

As he looked at the man, he decided that he'd tread lightly with him. He may show his emotions more than Levi, but Will felt like he was also the type to withhold information, and silently plot, while looking innocent. It was only Will's experience that he noticed this.

"I will do it." Will decided.

"Great!" Erwin said, smiling. "Now, we have other business to discuss. You were telling us about you're land?"

For the next few hours, Will described to them what the world outside their walls was like, showing them the maps and such. On the Skandian "trading" rout, he showed them just how big a sea could be.

"But that's bigger than the land!" the goatee guy exclaimed.

Will nodded. "And probably deeper than your walls are tall."

"So this is what keeps Titan's from crossing?" Hanji mused, "You said it was all salt water, right? I wonder if they have a weakness in salt water...? It might be another reason as to why they can't cross..." Hanji grinned, and did a bouncing turn to the door, calling out over her shoulder, "I'm off to do some research! You guys continue without me!"

"So I have to ask," Levi said, "What exactly are you? What was you're position, or rule back in you're land?"

Will nodded, knowing that this conversation would come up. "I am what my land calls a Ranger. We are law enforcers. But unlike knights, we take the silent, unseen approach."

"I still can't believe you still have _knights_..." the tall, dark haired man muttered.

"So is that what the cloak is for then? Hiding?" Levi asked.

"Yes. Though we can still hide without it, we Rangers still relay on it for most cases."

"And what about you're weapons?" Erwin asked, "A knife, a short sword, and a long bow? Wouldn't an actual sword, or crossbow- if you have those that is- be better?"

Will smirked. "Well, one would assume that they would. But Rangers must be light on our feet. Carrying a normal sword would be very difficult. Only one Ranger I know carries a sword, because he was taught to use one at a young age, and wasting a skill like it would be bad. So we have our sax knife, and short sword. If it comes to a battle close up, we Rangers can certainly hold our own with our two blades against a large knight with a claim war.

"As for the bow, instead of crossbow? The crossbows are far too clunky, and much less accurate than a normal bow. The crossbow's only redeeming quality would be its power. But my long bow is just as powerful, and many times more accurate."

"I used to fancy myself pretty good with the bow before I joined the scouts. Used to hunt, you see." the goatee man said.

Deciding it was a good time as any to ask, Will said, "Where are my things? You gave me my cloak, but nothing else?"

"Oh, I nearly forgot." Petra said, "We've got them packed into a carriage, as we plan to move out come sun down. I figured you wouldn't want to be lugging you're things around all day. If you want, I can have them retrieved...?"

Will sighed internally in relief. So they weren't keeping his things.

"Yes, I would like that. If you don't mind, I would also like to see my two companions."

Petra smiled, "Of course. Just follow me, and I'll show you to them, and then go get you're things."

"Thank you." Will said, smiling as he stood.

* * *

As soon as Will came within view of Tug and Rain, Tug stopped shaking and Rain bounded over, although Tug stayed put.

Smiling, Will leaned down to pet, scratch and hug Rain, who was sniffing all over, and licking, making sure he was okay.

"I'm okay, it's ok girl." he said, smiling widely. Standing he approached Tug and found out why he'd stayed. He'd been tied to a post. Sighing, though not really blaming the scouts, as they couldn't have known any better, he walked over and released him. He was then gently head butted in the chest.

_"You are never to leave my side again." _Tug seemed to say.

"Hey, that's hardly fair! I survived for half a year, didn't I?" he muttered back, still smirking.

Tug snorted, which was his way of sniffing in derision, _"I don't see how that has anything to do with this."_

Will rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything more. As he scratched Tug's ears, he looked up to find Petra walking forward, some of his packs in hand, while the rest where being carried by another scout.

"Here we go." she said, handing him his weapons. Taking them, Will was filled once again with the warmth that came to him when he'd taken his cloak into his hands. A minute later, he had his double-sheathed scabbard buckled on, the quiver over his shoulder but under the cloak- there was a slit in the cloak that allowed for the arrows to poke through- and his bow slung over his shoulder. Oh, how he'd missed they're presence.

He took the other packs and got them ready to place on Tug.

"You forgot to tie you're horse...?" Petra said, frowning slightly in confusion.

Will shook his head. "No, I did not forget. I am simply not doing it. Another thing that Ranger horses have been trained to do." he said, as if it were that simple- which really, it was.

Petra shook her head, slightly unbelieving. "Your horses sound pretty amazing."

"Well, Rangers need a horse with certain skills to match their own."

"So that must mean you're some real business with that bow than, huh?" she smirked.

"Well, yes. It is our main weapon of choice."

Petra paused and smirked, "Lets see it then."

Will paused. Should he? He knew his skills had probably suffered a bit, as he'd not been able to practice much, so the muscles had deteriorated a bit. He had done some small practicing on days where the Titans weren't so busy, so they _were_ still there. Shrugging, he decided to at least try. He'd be able to practice more from now on hopefully, so the sooner he got back into it, the better.

"Alright, I'll aim for that post over there." he said, pointing to a post at the base of one of the towers. He removed the bow from his shoulders and plucked an arrow. Studying the surroundings, he took in the what direction the wind was blowing, how strong it was, as well as noticing that there was a cart passing right between them and the post.

Smirking, he got down on a knee, placing the bow parallel to the ground, the arrow knocked and ready to be pulled.

The carts front wheels aliened with the post and in a flash, he had the arrow pulled back and was firing.

He heard Petra cluck her tongue, "Guess you misjudged when to fire."

Will shook his head, smirking. "I am appalled you would think me so clumsy. Look." he nodded toward the post.

Petra gasped. Not only was the arrow in the post, but there where _two_ arrows in the post.

"I... I didn't even see the second arrow..." she gasped.

"It's not perfect though..." Will muttered. As he had expected, his muscles had suffered from the time he'd come here. Obviously not so much that he still couldn't pull off something like that, but it wasn't quite Ranger level skill.

"_That's _not perfect?" she gasped, walking over to it, while Will followed.

Once they reached it, Will said, "No, it is not. I was aiming to hit it in its center with both arrows."

Instead, one was almost center, while he other was slightly more to the right.

"My muscles have suffered from not having been able to practice since coming to this land."

"Will, this is amazing. If this isn't perfect, than I can't imagine what you could do when you get your muscles back to shape." Petra said, smiling brightly.

Just than, a scout came up. "Captain Erwin said that we are to start getting ready. We leave in an hour."

* * *

_**AN: Ugh, sorry guys. Like I said, due to Halloween, there'd be a lag in updates. So I'm a little behind at the moment. Don't worry though. I should be able to update at least once or twice a week if not every day. :)**_

_**The Halloween costume contest is still up. You have till the end of this week to enter it. If only one person enters it, than they win by default. **_

_**In other news, I've been thinking about starting my own channel on YouTube with a friend of mine. We've thought about doing gaming for sure, but I'm starting to want to do some readings from my fanfics. Don't know yet if we'll actually do it, but I keep having the urge to, so who knows? :)**_

_**Well, that's it for now. I'ma go do some chores, play some sims and start the next chap. Till then, bye!**_


End file.
